He claims to have lost his land legs. And no wonder.
Meet Mario Salcedo, who has lived on cruise ships for the past 25 years and recently clocked up his 1,000th voyage with Royal Caribbean, taking customer loyalty to the next level and beyond.
Mr Salcedo, who’s known as ‘Super Mario’ in cruise circles, revealed that he spends around $101,000/£81,000 on cruises per year for a cabin with a balcony, funding his ocean-going lifestyle through investment management work.
His stature with Royal Caribbean is such that on some ships crew have created makeshift offices for him on deck – complete with cordoned-off tables and chairs and signs reading ‘Super Mario’s Office’.
Mario, who is not on social media, told Jackie Sheckler Finch at allthingscruise.com: ‘Cruising never gets old.
Mario Salcedo has lived on cruise ships for the past 25 years and recently clocked up his 1,000th voyage with Royal Caribbean. He’s pictured here in 2021
Mr Salcedo, who’s known as ‘Super Mario’ in cruise circles, revealed that he spends around $101,000/£81,000 on cruises per year, funding his ocean-going lifestyle through investment management work. On some ships crew have created makeshift offices for him
Mario told Jackie Sheckler Finch at allthingscruise.com: ‘Cruising never gets old’
‘I’m so used to being on ships that it feels more comfortable to me than being on land.’
The full-time cruiser told allthingscruise.com that he took to the high seas permanently after ‘tiring of the suit-and-tie business world and the long flights to international clients’.
After going on his first cruise in 1997, the Cuban-born businessman was hooked.
Mario’s 1,000th cruise was on the 3,286-passenger Explorer of the Seas (above)
He sea-trialled a few cruise lines, but settled on Royal Caribbean as the company with the ships that he liked best.
He’s been living on Royal Caribbean ships almost continuously since the year 2000, spending only a few days a year on land and pausing for 15 months during Covid.
His 1,000th cruise was on the 3,286-passenger Explorer of the Seas, which departed Miami on January 5 for an 11-night voyage to Panama and the southern Caribbean.
Mario said he spends about five hours a day working and ‘has fun’ for the rest of the time.
‘It’s zero stress,’ he says. ‘The best lifestyle I can find.’
Thanks to allthingscruise.com for kind permission to publish its photographs of Mr Salcedo.