Mario Salcedo
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Mario Salcedo (born ), nicknamed Super Mario, is an American businessman and a long-term passenger on
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...
s. He has continuously lived on
Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), formerly Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line founded in 1968 in Norway and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Florida, it is the l ...
cruise ships since 2000, aside from about 15 days on land a year and a 15-month gap during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
in 2020 and 2021. Born in Cuba, Salcedo immigrated with his parents to the
Miami metropolitan area The Miami metropolitan area is a coastal metropolitan area in southeastern Florida. It is the sixth-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States, and the lar ...
when he was seven years old and later became a
naturalized American citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...
. He received economics and finance undergraduate and graduate degrees, after which he worked in Miami at a
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
where he rose to the level of
international finance International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics or international macroeconomics) is the branch of monetary economics, monetary and macroeconomics, macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. Internation ...
director. The role required a large amount of traveling in Latin America. After 21 years of work, he resigned from the company in 1996 at the age of 47, and embarked on more than 100 cruises on different
cruise line A cruise line is a company (law), company that operates cruise ships that operate on Cruising (maritime), ocean or River cruise, rivers and which markets cruises to the public. Cruise lines are distinct from Passenger ship, passenger lines whic ...
s between 1997 and 2000. He eventually settled with Royal Caribbean after experiencing '' Voyager of the Seas'', the largest cruise ship at the time, in January 2000. Working from the cruise ship, Salcedo manages an online investment management business for 10
high-net-worth individual In the financial services industry, a high-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a person who maintains liquid assets at or above a certain threshold. Typically the criterion is that the person's financial assets (excluding their primary residence) are ...
s. By 2016, Salcedo had been on more than 1,000 cruises, 850 of which were with Royal Caribbean, and had spent more than 6,000 nights on board Royal Caribbean ships. The documentarian
Lance Oppenheim Lance Oppenheim (born January 26, 1996) is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and producer. His work blends nonfiction storytelling with heightened, cinematic formalism. Oppenheim has received critical acclaim for his films '' Some Kind of Heav ...
profiled Salcedo in the
documentary short A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill Ni ...
''The Happiest Guy in the World'' in 2018.


Early life and early career

Mario Salcedo was born in in Cuba. After his parents felt they could not stay in the country, he immigrated with them to Florida when he was seven years old. At the beginning of the 1960s, his family moved to the
Miami metropolitan area The Miami metropolitan area is a coastal metropolitan area in southeastern Florida. It is the sixth-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States, and the lar ...
, and became
naturalized American citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...
s. Salcedo received economics and finance undergraduate and graduate degrees. While working in Miami at a
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
, he served as an
international finance International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics or international macroeconomics) is the branch of monetary economics, monetary and macroeconomics, macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. Internation ...
director. For his job, he traveled across Latin America; in total, he lived in hotel rooms for longer than he lived in his Miami home. Estimating that he spent 90% of his time traveling, Salcedo accrued three million miles for airlines'
frequent-flyer program A frequent-flyer programme (FFP) is a loyalty program offered by an airline. Many airlines have frequent-flyer programmes designed to encourage airline customers enrolled in the programme to accumulate points (also called miles, kilometres, ...
s. With the dual objectives of global trekking and founding a
small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...
, he resigned from his director job in 1996 when he was 47, having developed
occupational burnout The ICD-11 of the World Health Organization (WHO) describes occupational burnout as a work-related phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. According to the WHO, symptoms include "feelings of e ...
.


Living on cruise ships

Dismayed with air travel, Salcedo decided in 1997 to go on a cruise after noticing
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...
s at the Miami port. He subsequently scheduled six consecutive cruises. Between 1997 and 2000, he embarked on over 100 back-to-back cruises on nearly all the main
cruise line A cruise line is a company (law), company that operates cruise ships that operate on Cruising (maritime), ocean or River cruise, rivers and which markets cruises to the public. Cruise lines are distinct from Passenger ship, passenger lines whic ...
s. In January 2000, Salcedo went on Royal Caribbean's '' Voyager of the Seas'', which then had been the biggest cruise ship. He marveled at how the ship was "so revolutionary—the first ice skating rink, the first rock climbing wall, so many elements that took cruising to another dimension". After experiencing ''Voyager of the Seas'', Salcedo has only travelled on Royal Caribbean ships since 2000. In the 2000s, Charles Teige, captain of ''
Liberty of the Seas ''Liberty of the Seas'' is a Royal Caribbean International which entered regular service in May 2007. It was initially announced that she would be called ''Endeavour of the Seas''; however, this name was later changed. The 15-deck ship accommod ...
'', gave him the nickname "Super Mario". The name has persisted even on other ships Salcedo boards. By 2016, Salcedo had been on about 1,000 cruises, of which roughly 850 had been on Royal Caribbean, and he had visited 25 of the line's cruise ships. By that year, after around two decades of cruising, he had spent over 6,000 nights on board Royal Caribbean ships, which cost him about US$1.4million. Cruising costs him between $60,000 and $70,000 every year. He routinely stays on a ship for six months before moving to another ship to spend six months. To finance flights to cruise ports, he uses miles he accrues from funding the cruises with credit cards. To minimize costs, Salcedo consistently stays in inside rooms. To increase the chances of his remaining in the same room, Salcedo reserves cruises two years ahead of time. Joyce Wood, associated with
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
company Cruise 800, became his travel agent around 2004. After he sends the reservations to Wood, she monitors the bookings' costs and secures cheaper tickets whenever the price goes down. In return, she receives the commissions from the bookings. Salcedo's extensive cruising on Royal Caribbean landed him in the line's highest loyalty tier, which gave him free Internet access. He uses the Internet to work as an investment manager. Salcedo started his venture through his contacts and by 2016 was managing the investment portfolios of 10
high-net-worth individual In the financial services industry, a high-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a person who maintains liquid assets at or above a certain threshold. Typically the criterion is that the person's financial assets (excluding their primary residence) are ...
s. On the wall near where he works is a plaque that bears the words "Super Mario's Office". He maintains his business from a pool
deckchair A deckchair (or deck chair) is a folding chair, usually with a frame of treated wood or other material. The term now denotes a portable folding chair, with a single strip of fabric or vinyl forming the backrest and seat. It is meant for leis ...
that gives him an ocean view. After finishing his work for the day, he socializes with friends on the ship, swims in the pool, or watches football and basketball games on the television. When visiting the
Western Caribbean zone The western Caribbean zone is a region consisting of the Caribbean coasts of Central America and Colombia, from the Yucatán Peninsula in southern Mexico to the Caribbean region in northern Colombia, and the islands west of Jamaica are also incl ...
, Salcedo goes
scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...
. At Christmas in 2012, he played
Santa Claus Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...
for the children on the ship and gave them presents. Salcedo's exploits were documented by
Lance Oppenheim Lance Oppenheim (born January 26, 1996) is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and producer. His work blends nonfiction storytelling with heightened, cinematic formalism. Oppenheim has received critical acclaim for his films '' Some Kind of Heav ...
in ''The Happiest Guy in the World'', a 10-minute ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' ''Op-Doc'' that debuted on April 19, 2018, at the
Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
. ''
Aeon The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...
'' praised the documentary short for its "clever cinematography and editing" and found it "subtly probes deeper questions of freedom, capitalism and meaning-making". In the documentary short, Salcedo bemoaned not being able to receive
Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
on his room's television. With occasional breaks, Salcedo has been living on cruise ships continuously for over 20 years with only a 15-month gap caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, he stopped living on cruise ships and moved to
Palm Beach, Aruba Palm Beach is a tourism district about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) northwest of Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. Many high-rise hotels are located there, such as Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort & Casino, Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, Barcel ...
, and when the cruise restart happened, Salcedo resumed going on cruises in July 2021 on the MS ''Freedom of the Seas''.


Personal life

Salcedo has never been married, and he has no children. He is not on
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
. He owns a two-bedroom
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
in Miami, and uses one of the rooms to display his cruise mementos. In between cruises, every week Salcedo spends several hours at the condo to keep an eye on it. Spending roughly 15 days a year on land, Salcedo uses the time to visit doctors, the bank, or travel to his next cruise port via airplane. After an interview request, Royal Caribbean told
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
in 2022 that Salcedo had stopped speaking with the media.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salcedo, Mario American money managers American underwater divers Businesspeople from Miami Cuban emigrants to the United States Living people Naturalized citizens of the United States Royal Caribbean International Year of birth missing (living people)