Australians are said to be the biggest cruisers in the world, at least by head of population.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But we pale into insignificance when it comes to the length of time we spend on the ocean waves. We like to chat about our week or two cruising every year or so. But American businessman Mario Salcedo talks about the week or two he spends going ashore every year.
For the past 20 years, Mario has run his investment company year-round from on board five star cruise ships, most of them from the luxury Royal Caribbean International.
He reckons he’s been on about 1000 cruises in that time, chalked-up some 6000 nights at sea, and spent in the vicinity of $1.4 million(US) doing so.
This is all after he was bitten by the cruise bug at age 45, when he “wanted to discover the world”, and set up his own company to do so.
He books interior staterooms because he only uses them for sleep, showering and to dress. Mario eats only two meals a day for his weight’s sake, and does a lot of walking and scuba diving to keep fit when in port. And he loves to socialise at night either dancing, or while enjoying an after dinner cigar and cognac.
Mario is at sea for 50 weeks a year, with the remaining two spent travelling between ports to change ships, to see his doctor for a regular check-up, or to visit his bank manager.
Despite this, he maintains a condominium in his home town of Miami – complete with a maid he drops his laundry off to whenever his cruise berths nearby; and a car he likes to keep handy in the event he might need it on one of those visits.
“I’m totally addicted, hooked on cruising,” Mario says. “I am a frequent floater. I cannot live on land. When I walk from my kitchen to my living room in Miami, I stumble. I can’t walk a straight line. I’ll run into the wall. I spill coffee. I’ve lost my land legs.”
People who are only occasional cruisers inevitably ask him if his way of life becomes monotonous … mundane ... uninteresting. “Quite frankly, it never ever gets boring,” he says. Even if you have been to a particular port in the past, you always find something new to do or see.
“And, believe you me, it certainly beats having to do supermarket shopping, cooking and washing the dishes after each meal.”
What’s Mario’s favourite port of all those thousands he has visited? He usually flatters local travel writers by waxing lyrical about the port in which he is being interviewed. But he really has a definitive answer.
“Which is my favourite destination? That’s an easy question,” he laughs. “All of them.”