He has continuously lived on Royal Caribbean International cruise ships since 2000, aside from about 15 days on land a year and a 15-month gap during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Born in Cuba, Salcedo immigrated with his parents to the Miami metropolitan area when he was seven years old and later became a naturalized American citizen.
He eventually settled with Royal Caribbean after experiencing Voyager of the Seas, the largest cruise ship at the time, in January 2000.
[5] Estimating that he spent 90% of his time traveling, Salcedo accrued three million miles for airlines' frequent-flyer programs.
[6] With the dual objectives of global trekking and founding a small business, he resigned from his director job in 1996 when he was 47, having developed occupational burnout.
[6][8] 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".
[4] Salcedo's extensive cruising on Royal Caribbean landed him in the line's highest loyalty tier, which gave him free Internet access.
[6] After finishing his work for the day, he socializes with friends on the ship, swims in the pool, [1] or watches football and basketball games on the television.
[3][12] Salcedo's exploits were documented by Lance Oppenheim in The Happiest Guy in the World, a 10-minute New York Times Op-Doc that debuted on April 19, 2018, at the Tribeca Festival.
[13][14] Aeon praised the documentary short for its "clever cinematography and editing" and found it "subtly probes deeper questions of freedom, capitalism and meaning-making".
[20] 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.