Nick’s 2025 casino status strategy (hoping for two more “free” cruises)

Over the past few years, I’ve written pretty extensively about casino status matching, particularly as it has pertained to getting free (or very cheap) cruises. Unsurprisingly, the landscape has changed considerably since I first wrote about the Carnival Fun Match more than three years ago in November 2021. After 10 cruises in less than 2 years, and with two more on the horizon next year, the tide is turning. Still, I have plans to ride the wave for one more year, though it’s less of a sure thing than in years past.

A recap of my “free cruise” history

For those curious about what I’ve done so far, here is the short-story recap:

• October 2022: Carnival 10-day European cruise from Rome with my “Carnival Fun Match” free balcony cabin offer
• December 2022: Player 1 Royal Caribbean free balcony cabin 5-day sailing (long-dead match)
• February 2023: Player 2 Royal Caribbean free balcony cabin 5-day sailing (long-dead match)
• July 2023: MSC 10-day European cruise from Genoa with 2 cabins: Free balcony cabin (Player 1) and free ocean view cabin (Player 2) from long-dead Rivers Philadelphia match
• August 2023: Holland America 7-day cruise from Alaska free ocean view cabin (paid to upgrade to balcony) from Holland America match for Player 2 (Player 1 was denied match)
• February 2024: MSC 7-day Caribbean cruise from Guadeloupe in ocean view cabin from Ocean Prime for Player 1 (matched in March 2023)
• April 2024: Carnival 10-day Caribbean cruise from New York with free interior cabin offer (paid to upgrade to ocean view) received as an ongoing offer from casino play on 2022 cruise
• August 2024: MSC 7-day European cruise from Venice in ocean view cabin from Ocean Prime for Player 2 (matched in April 2023 and status expired July 1, 2024 but original April 2024 cruise got cancelled by cruise line and rebooked to this August cruise)

Both my wife (Player 2) and I have “free” Holland America cruises booked in 2025 thanks to the Wynn Platinum status match of May 2024 (long dead), which will bring us to 10 “free” cruises since the shenanigans began.

It’s also worth noting that we enjoyed a combined 4 free nights and both free play and dining credits at Resorts World Las Vegas thanks to the previous Ocean partnership with Resorts World Las Vegas, though Ocean has since moved to a partnership with Wynn for those free nights.

We skipped trying to match to Virgin Voyages despite the fact that they were giving many readers free cruise offers because those cruises are adults-only and that hasn’t been an option for us.

There have been a couple other cruise matching opportunities that either didn’t work out (Princess didn’t offer either of us a complimentary cruise for instance) or didn’t interest us enough for one reason or another.

Notable changes for 2025

As noted at the top, the landscape has changed considerably over these past couple of years.

Most recently, we’ve seen a number of major negative changes:

• Wyndham Diamond status bestowed by virtue of holding the Wyndham Earner Business credit card will no longer match to Caesars Diamond as of 2/1/25. Matching now will only get you status until 1/31/25, so there is no easy Caesars Diamond after the end of next month
• Caesars Diamond has been less effective at matching for free cruise offers (cruise lines have probably caught on to the ease of getting Caesars Diamond status over the past couple of years)
• Holland America and Princess cruise lines have been looking for proof of land-based casino offers for free stays and free play (typically offers reserved for actual gamblers), though some have had success submitting things like their comped Atlantis reservation (courtesy of Caesars Diamond) for consideration.
• Ocean Casino in Atlantic City is now requiring 24 months of inactivity to match again (meaning that many of us are locked out of a new match for a few more months, whereas it used to be an 18-month inactivity clock)
• Ocean Casino in Atlantic City is now requiring matched players to earn 250 Tier Credits in order to get travel benefits like a complimentary MSC cruise and the complimentary Wynn Las Vegas stay. This essentially means that you’ll have to gamble for several hours to get these benefits.

The Carnival Fun Match appears to have been a one-time match with most readers being unsuccessful in matching for another free cruise. A number of match opportunities long ago died. Things aren’t as easy as they once were and opportunities for those of us who got in early and often are finally drying up.

To be clear, none of the above is shocking. Frankly, I never expected these opportunities to last as long as they have and I think that any of us who have taken advantage of them have more to be thankful for than disappointed about.

What’s next for me in 2025?

I’m not ready to dry out my sea legs just yet. As noted above, my wife and I each have bookings with Holland America for cruises in the new year courtesy of our matched Wynn Platinum status (that status expires on 1/31/25, but we were able to book cruises departing on later dates). This is from the match that Wynn briefly offered in April and May 2024.

However, our run with good casino statuses is coming to a close. We lost MGM Gold with the end of the partnership with Hyatt (and the MGM partnership with Marriott has been disappointing). We both lost our Ocean Prime status on July 1, 2024 and are set to lose our next best remaining casino statuses (Caesars Diamond and Wynn Platinum) at the end of January 2025. At first glance, our hopes of future matching look dim.

However, I think (hope) we’re going to be saved by a match that we didn’t do.

Back when I went to Atlantic City in March 2023, I had heard rumblings about a possible match from Hard Rock Icon / Ocean Prime / Caesars Diamond to Bally’s Atlantic City. I drove down to Bally’s the same day I executed the other matches and went to the Player’s Club desk. As I wrote at the time, the minute that the staff member saw me pull out status cards from other casinos, he cut me off and said that they don’t match. He still offered to open a player’s card for me, but I declined because I didn’t want to play there and sometimes matches are only available to new program members, so I decided to hold off in case they offered a match someday.

It may have been a lucky accident that I got turned down that day.

As it turned out, soon after that people began reporting successful matches to Bally’s Superstar status, which came with a lounge pass. I didn’t much regret missing out on a free meal in the moment. However, I am now really glad to have waited because of mismatches in membership years.

Bally’s has been matching Caesars Diamond members to Bally’s Superstar. More importantly, the programs run on very different calendars.

The Caesars elite calendar ends on January 31st, with members who did not qualify for status dropping on February 1st. By contrast, as I first saw in the Miles Talk Facebook group, the Bally’s elite year runs from January 1st to December 31st.

This means that in January 2025, while I still have Caesars Diamond status, it should be possible to match to Bally’s Superstar status in Atlantic City (yes, these matches must be done in person — casinos want degenerate gamblers coming through the door, not matching from a computer screen at home). That Bally’s Superstar status would run through December 31, 2024.

After making that match, I’ll go back home with plans to return to Atlantic City after March 1st.

After March 1, 2025, I’ll head back to Atlantic City with plans (hopes?) to match from Bally’s Superstar to Hard Rock Icon and on to Ocean Prime (I’ll hit 24 months of inactivity at Ocean in early March 2025 and my wife will in late March). Since the Hard Rock membership year runs March to February, this should give me Hard Rock Icon status through February 2025. I could then match my Hard Rock Icon status to Ocean Prime status.

If Ocean continues with the precedent of the last couple of years, a match to Ocean Prime after March 1, 2025 will hopefully mean getting Ocean Prime status through June 30, 2026. My wife will follow all of the same steps above.

I should add that I saw a data point that indicated that Bally’s Superstar may match directly to Ocean Prime. I don’t see that in the Ocean tier match brochure, but if that were to work, I’d match Caesars to Bally’s in January 2025 and then Bally’s to Ocean Prime in March 2025 and then wait to match from Ocean Prime to Hard Rock Icon further down the line (like in March 2026, which would give me Hard Rock status until February 2027). Note that any or all of this may (and probably will) change well before 2027, so that’s just a potential roadmap that might allow matching to continue forward in future years. If that works, the play would be:

• Caesars Diamond to Bally’s Superstar in January 2025
• Bally’s Superstar to Ocean Prime in March 2025 (again, I think this may require matching Bally’s to Hard Rock to Ocean, but I’ll see if this is working first)
• Ocean to Hard Rock Icon in March 2026 (assuming I didn’t need to match to Hard Rock in the previous step)
• Hard Rock Icon to Bally’s Superstar in January 2027
• Bally’s to Ocean in March 2027, etc

Note that all of that is highly theoretical. It can and probably will all change.

The challenge will be earning 250 tier credits. Ocean Casino now requires earning 250 tier credits to get travel benefits like the MSC Cruise and Wynn Las Vegas stay. The only way to earn tier credits is through gambling. Spend on things like room, spa, and food & beverage does not earn tier credits with Ocean.

In other words, getting a “free” cruise from Ocean won’t be free because there will be some gambling required. Unfortunately, Ocean does not publish a formula for awarding tier credits. There are some online tools that guestimate, but it’s hard to know whether those guestimates are accurate. At a base level, Ocean Prime status ordinarily requires 20,000 tier credits (and the level below Prime, which is Preferred, ordinarily requires 3,000 tier credits). Based on those numbers, I imagine that 250 tier credits won’t require a huge amount of gambling. Neither will it be satisfied with a hundred dollar bill in a slot machine. You’ll probably need to be willing to lose a few hundred dollars and maybe even more (Miles Talk estimates that you’ll need to be willing to play several hours of Blackjack at $15-$25 per hand or something of that nature). The idea would be to lose less than the cost of paying for a cruise. Thankfully, there are some games in the casino with relatively low house edge over the long-haul. That said, variance could mean that you’ll lose what you would have spent to book a cruise or that you could come out well ahead. You’ll have to search the Internet and Youtube for strategies to gamble with low house edge and variance if you’re keen on trying to do this as cheaply as possible, but note that no matter what you may lose. That’ll make this unappealing for many, but I’ll probably do it for the sake of science.

From a timing perspective, if we’re able to earn the 250 tier credits each with relatively low effort, we should hopefully have plenty of time to cruise at least once each (if not twice each) on the Ocean Prime offer and hopefully get a complimentary stay at Wynn Las Vegas. As a minimum, this strategy ought to make it possible for us each to book one more complimentary MSC cruise. That will bring us to 12 cruises since the beginning of this run. Maybe a dozen is the right number with which to close out?

I have to admit that I’m a little burned about losing Caesars Diamond status in 2025. I was really hopeful to get a chance to make a trip to Las Vegas for a couple of the cheaper World Series of Poker tournament events in 2025 and Caesars Diamond would have been really useful for getting cheap rates at Paris/Horseshoe and avoiding resort fees. That said, I won’t be too sad about cheap Hyatt elite nights at Rio if my Las Vegas dreams materialize (and hopefully a couple of free nights at Wynn).

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: Am I too late to start?
  • A: If you’re starting from scratch, probably. It’s theoretically possible that you could get the Wyndham Earner business card now, get Wyndham Diamond, and match it to Caesars Diamond in time to do some January 2025 matching, but I wouldn’t count on it. Barclays is often tough on approvals (sometimes the process of getting approved takes weeks) and the match from Wyndham to Caesars similarly often takes several weeks. I don’t think one could apply for the Wyndham Earner Business card today with a high degree of confidence that this could all work out. It’s possible, but far from guaranteed.
• Q: Can I do all of this online?
  • A: No. Apart from the Wyndham to Caesar’s match, you’ll need to do all other casino matches of which I am aware in person at the casino. Specifically, you’ll need to go to Atlantic City since Ocean Prime is the real catch here.
• Q: Do I really need to go to Atlantic City?
  • A: Yes.
• Q: Can I give the free cruises away? What about the free Wynn Las Vegas stay?
  • A: No. The “free” cruises from status matches aren’t given as a transferable gift but rather are a way for the cruise line casino to attract people who they think will gamble a lot. They want to give a cruise to a gambler who is a heavy hitter at a casino (as evidenced by their high-tier status) who they think is likely to lose more than the cost of the cruise in the casino, not a free cruise to the gambler’s parent/aunt/cousin/friend who may not gamble at all. To be clear, the cruise line won’t force you to gamble or chase you down to pressure you to gamble, but their gamble in giving the free cruise away is based on attracting someone who they think will gamble.
• Q: Can I get Caesars Diamond from FoundersCard?
  • A: Yes, I believe so. If and when the rest of the methods dry up, FoundersCard may be the final on-ramp to Caesars Diamond. However, I haven’t closely tracked current FoundersCard benefits and don’t know whether the partnership with Caesars will continue, so YMMV.

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