At the beginning of the month, news broke that Wynn Las Vegas is offering a temporary status match. That match includes the opportunity to get a complimentary Holland America cruise for two in an oceanview cabin. If you’ve been reading this blog over the past couple of years, you know that if you want me to visit your casino, all you need to do is dangle a free cruise in front of me. My wife and I are both planning to match in order to get two cruises for the price of one trip to Las Vegas to execute the match. However, this match has a lot of moving parts. We’re planning to make a family trip out of it and while it is far from “free”, we intend to soak up some Joy of Free while we’re making it happen.
Caesars Diamond status for a $100 Celebration dinner all around
My wife and I both have the Wyndham Earner Business card and as a result we each have Wyndham Diamond status that we’ve matched to Caesars Diamond status. We have a third family member joining us on this adventure who has the same.
Several years ago, all three of us used our Diamond celebration dinners together and I anticipate that will do so again this time around. To be clear, we’ve all dined together and gotten a single check and used all three Diamond celebration dinners together and that’s what we’ll do again. (Anyone have a recommendation about where we should eat with it?).
I should note that for each of the last several years, I’ve heard rumblings that one has to earn 100 tier credits in order to be able to use the $100 Diamond celebration dinner. Despite some people saying that was required, my wife was able to use her Diamond Celebration dinner without having earned any tier credits. We’ll see what happens here. I strongly suspect that the Diamond celebration dinner doesn’t load to a Caesars Diamond account immediately and that leads some people to inquire at customer service about their Celebration dinner….and (no shock here) customer service gives them incorrect info. But we’ll see how it works out.
Match to Wynn Platinum for $100 spa credit each
We we recently reported, Wynn Las Vegas is currently matching Caesars Diamond (as well as other programs) to Wynn Platinum (though May 31, 2024), That’s awesome for a few reasons.
First, Wynn doesn’t often offer matches. Second, Platinum status comes with some nice benefits, which include:
- $100 spa credit
- $150 dining credit in your birthday month
- Complimentary Holland America Cruise*.
*To get the cruise, a Platinum member must have stayed twice (and on nonconsecutive nights). More detail in this post.
Unfortunately, our trip to Las Vegas does not happen in anyone in our party’s birthday month (we’ll be within 30 days of one person’s birthday, but not the right month!).
However, we’re heading to Las Vegas in large part to make use of this Wynn match (which will also lead to another match). We would of course like to both use the $100 spa credit and make the two stays necessary in order to be able to take the Holland America cruise, so we’ve planned enough days in Las Vegas to be able to each get two non-consecutive nights at Wynn. It’s not really cheap and it probably isn’t worth flying all the way to Las Vegas just for this, so we’ll try to maximize as many related things as we can.
It’s worth knowing that we don’t really have full details on the cruise yet. I understand that it gets booked through Wynn Rewards, so I anticipate that booking it may not be quite as smooth and easy as other “free” cruises where we’ve essentially been able to call the cruise line and book whatever we wanted. Wynn status is good through January 31, 2025. I had initially heard a report (from someone who was clear that the casino employee who quoted this didn’t sound sure about it) that the cruise had to be sailed by June 30th, but Dave Grossman at Miles Talk reported in their Facebook group yesterday that Wynn has told him that the sail-by date is January 31, 2025. If that’s correct, it will obviously be a limiting factor to consider.
Possible gamble on booking Wynn Las Vegas via Fine Hotels & Resorts
In order to trigger the free cruise portion of the Wynn Platinum match, we need to make two non-consecutive stays at Wynn.
We’re going to accomplish that by staying a night at Wynn (my wife and I will both match, each looking to get our own cruise, so we’ll book two rooms), spending a few nights somewhere else, and then one more night at Wynn (again with two rooms).
When booking via Fine Hotels & Resorts, Wynn comes with a $150 spa credit. Normally, I’d hate that. I’m generally not into spa treatments and I know that the spa at Wynn isn’t going to have anything on the menu that only costs $150, so that type of credit is really just an invitation to pay more than I otherwise would have.
However, this time around, I feel a bit differently about it. That’s because we expect to match to Wynn Platinum and as a result both my wife and I will each have a $100 spa credit to use from our Wynn Platinum status. If we’re able to combine that Wynn Platinum $100 credit with the $150 spa credit from the Fine Hotels & Resorts booking, we should be able to end up with a free 50-minute massage (or a bunch of things that would be either nearly free or highly discounted depending on what we book) based on the Spa menu Wynn publishes online.
This actually works out to be a great deal. One of the nights we’re booking via FHR costs about $280 all-in. We’ll use an Amex Platinum card that offers a $200 annual credit for prepaid Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings to take advantage of that benefit and we’ll end up with complimentary breakfast for two and the spa credit. That certainly seems reasonable enough!
I should note a couple of things though:
- I don’t know for sure that booking via Fine Hotels & Resorts will count as qualifying nights for the free cruise. It seems likely that they would qualify (after all, a true high roller might have their Wynn stays comped completely), but I don’t have any data points on this.
- Booking via Fine Hotels & Resorts is slightly more expensive than booking directly via Wynn. More precisely, it costs about $40 more all-in on our specific nights to book via Fine Hotels & Resorts than it does to book directly at the Wynn website when logged in with a Wynn Rewards account. I think that’s clearly worthwhile since an FHR booking comes with free breakfast for two, guaranteed 4pm late checkout, and a $150 spa credit.
I’m currently a bit split on what to do. We’ve done both — we’ve booked the same nights via both Fine Hotels & Resorts and directly via Wynn (all at flexible rates that can be cancelled). I’ve been hopeful that we’ll get a reader data point as to whether FHR stays count, otherwise I’m not sure I’ll gamble on a Fine Hotels & Resorts booking — I may end up going with the direct bookings, which cost a bit less overall but don’t come with benefits like free breakfast and the $150 spa credit (and if I book directly, I can’t use my $200 prepaid Fine Hotels & Resorts credit from an Amex Platinum card, times two).
We’ve got some time, so I’m hopeful that I’ll get a positive data point on Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings satisfying the requirement for non-consecutive stays before our trip.
Either way, Wynn isn’t cheap. It gets very expensive over a weekend, so we’ve booked a long weekend in order to get a weekday night at the beginning of the trip and a weekday night at the end of the trip to pay less for our Wynn stays. If we go with the rooms we’ve booked directly, it’s still going to end up costing us a little over $500 for our two non-consecutive nights. I’d be happy to be able to use a couple of FHR credits if I can!
Match Wynn Platinum to Fontainebleau Gold
Fontainebleau is the latest mega resort on the strip, having opened just a few months ago. When they first opened, we reported that they were status matching other casinos. That lasted for one day before they pulled it. Thankfully, Fontainebleau brought back their status match shortly thereafter (though only through June 2, 2024).
I went to Las Vegas in January for a wedding and I intended to match to Fontainebleau status while I was there, but I never got a chance to make it to the property. I’m glad for that “bad” luck because as it turns out Wynn Platinum matches to Fontainebleau Gold, which comes with a couple of great benefits.
Therefore, this time around, my wife and I (and our third family member) will all plan to match from Wynn Platinum to Fontainebleau Gold. That’s great because, among other benefits Fontainebleau Gold includes:
- $150 spa credit
- $150 dining credit
Since there are three of us executing the match, we expect to end up with a total of $450 in dining credits. We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to use those all together to buy a nice dinner for four adults and two kids!
Furthermore, according to reader reports, the spa credit actually buys both a massage and something like a hot stone add-on or an eye mask add-on at Fontainebleau. Note that you do need to pay the 20% gratuity in both cases — your spa and dining credits can’t be used to cover gratuity. So we’re on the hook for a $30 charge to use each credit, but that’s entirely reasonable to me.
I should add here that you can book a spa treatment without staying at the hotel. Apparently, on the weekends, they do not allow non-hotel guests to book spa treatments unless they have status. As a Fontainebleau Gold member, reports indicate that you can book a spa treatment without staying at Fontainebleau even on the weekend (so you’ll want to let them know that you have Gold status when you call to make your appointment).
The Ocean Prime Free Resorts World stay comes in handy again
We’ve long written about Atlantic City status matching as a path to a free MSC cruise or two, but one of the other benefits of executing the tier matching in Atlantic City (from Wyndham Diamond to Caesars Diamond to Hard Rock Icon to Ocean Prime) is that Ocean Prime status comes with a complimentary two-night stay at Conrad Las Vegas at Resorts World. That complimentary stay even comes with a $100 dining credit and $100 in free play!
My wife and I used our complimentary Resorts World stays back in January. We needed 3 nights in Las Vegas, so we booked overlapping nights in order to get all three nights we needed covered (in other words, I had booked Friday and Saturday nights and my wife and booked Saturday and Sunday nights and we just moved our stuff over to her room after she checked in). Unfortunately, we can’t use that benefit again.
However, the family member joining us has also done the Atlantic City matching and that worked out perfectly because it means that she had two free nights to use at Resorts World. As it so happens, Resorts World is right across the street (well, diagonally across the street) from both Wynn and Fontainebleau.
So we’ll spend our first night at Wynn and then my wife’s sister will spend three weekend nights at Conrad Las Vegas, two of which are completely free thanks to the Ocean Prime match (and she’ll get the dining credit and free play). That’s a great deal on the weekend nights we needed. The same two nights at the Conrad booked via the cheapest flexible rate through Hilton would have been more than $1,200. Getting that for $0 is great! There isn’t even a resort fee on those nights. She’ll then use Hilton Honors points to book the third night, which will ring in at right around our Reasonable Redemption Value for Hilton points — not the best deal in Vegas that night, but it beats switching hotels.
My wife and I and our kids can’t make use of the free Resorts World benefit since we’ve already used it, so we considered other options. I originally intended to stay at Rio now that it is a Hyatt property (and Globalist breakfast is at Hash House a Go-Go!!), but the location of Resorts World is just perfect for this stay with the matching at Wynn and Fontainebleau (and it doesn’t hurt that we just like Resorts World despite the sort of isolated location a the north end of the strip). I had a Hilton free night certificate to use and I expect my wife will receive her annual Hilton Aspire free night certificate soon. We’ll end up using a couple of free night certificates for this stay and probably go with a cash booking for the third night as it presents an opportunity to use my wife’s Hilton Aspire Hilton credit and the quarterly Hilton credit on my Hilton Business card assuming that they’ll let us split tender.
I’ll add that Resorts World does have a status match, but it doesn’t look like there are any benefits that make it worthwhile.
Putting it all together
All together, since we are doing this trip in three-player mode, we’ll end up with:
- $300 in Caesars Diamond Celebration dinner money
- $300 in Wynn Spa credit from Wynn Platinum
- $450 in Fontainebleau spa credit
- $450 in Fontainebleau dining credit
- $600 in Wynn spa credits from booking two rooms via Fine Hotels and Resorts twice (we haven’t booked an FHR room for my sister-in-law — if we do, this will increase)
- Free breakfast for 2 on a couple of mornings at Wynn
- $100 in dining credit and free play credit at Resorts World for one person
- Hopefully, 3 complimentary ocean view Holland America cruises
The trip will end up costing us:
- About $525 for the two non-consecutive Wynn nights if we book directly and forgo Platinum card FHR credits
- Round trip flights to Las Vegas (outbound booked with Southwest Rapid Rewards points; return TBD)
- A couple of Hilton free night certificates
- About $300 for one paid night at Conrad Las Vegas, which will be reimbursed by credit card credits (note that I have gift card money from my Q1 credit on the Hilton Business card also)
That’s all going to be a lot of fun. I won’t argue that this is all “worth it” exactly. The flights to Vegas aren’t cheap, and neither is Wynn (we could probably just about book at least one cruise considering the value of the miles we’ll use getting to and from Vegas and the cost of the Wynn stay). I don’t yet know how difficult it is going to be to book the Holland America cruise (I understand that this gets booked through Wynn rather than being self-booked, so I anticipate some more friction). And that’s to say nothing of the time required to fly to Las Vegas and stay several nights in order to get non-consecutive stays at Wynn.
That said, we happened to have a long weekend coming up where there’s no school for 5 days and we were planning to go somewhere. We enjoy Las Vegas enough that this seemed like a good enough deal to make for a fun quick getaway (particularly when you consider how little we’ll need to spend on food!). It’s not something I would recommend, but I think it’s going to be fun. When we asked the kids if they remembered going to Las Vegas last year, my six year old immediately remembered the arcades at Circus Circus and Excalibur — or, as I explained to a lost adult who mistakenly took the elevator to the “Fun Dungeon” at Excalibur, “the machines with no hope of getting your money back”. We’ve got some fun ideas in mind for the weekend, so getting a trip where we’re able to leverage benefits to make it feel like a good value and we have the chance to hopefully pick up 2 more cruises seems like a good time to me.
While Vegas isn’t for everyone, it’s nice to know that we’ve got some winning in our future without setting foot on a casino floor thanks to some strategic casino matching — all courtesy of the Wyndham Earner Business card. As a reminder, all of this is possible because that card, which costs $95 per year, comes with Wyndham Diamond status, which matches to Caesars Diamond status. Thank you, Wyndham Earner Business for what will be yet another fun weekend filled with credits that extend some Joy of Free thanks to that Wyndham Diamond status.
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I saw your comments below about waiting until the 15th of the following month; is this a hard and fast rule? I am unfortunately matching in AC on May 1 and was hoping to use the Resorts nights later in May. I take it I’m stuck?
Hey Nick, Thank you so much for all the information you share. It is lifechanging! I am a newbie to all of this and your guidance has been priceless. I have a newbie question 😛 I matched to Ocean Prime, it was supposed to come with 2 complimentary nights. But when I called to book them I was told that I have not played enough to earn them. Is there some criteria that has to be met before I can use the comp nights? What is the trigger here? Also is the cruise also conditional on something?
Kindly let me know. Thank you so much!!
Regards,
Sai
I never tried using the 2 complimentary nights at Ocean, so I can’t speak to whether that’s true or not (did you try calling more than once? Often things like that are a matter of hanging up and calling again so you get to a different representative).
There is no condition for the cruise — you call MSC to book that, so they don’t see your players account apart from a list they get of people who have Prime status. You just need to wait until the 15th of the month following the month in which you match — so if you matched in April 2024, you’d need to wait until May 15, 2024 to call MSC’s casino department to book (they get the list from Ocean around the 15th).
Similarly, to book the free nights at Resorts World, you’re calling Resorts World — all they have is the list of people who have Prime status, they can’t see your play. Same as the cruise, you have to do it starting the 15th of the month following the month in which you match.
When did you match to Ocean Prime and how soon after did you try to book your stay? I think you supposedly had to wait like 24hrs to be able to book the stay at Oceans. Also possible that the person with whom you spoke didn’t realize you had just matched? I’d try calling again and explain that you just matched to Ocean Prime and they said that you’d get a complimentary 2-night stay when you matched. Maybe the person you spoke with just didn’t realize what you were trying to do.
Thank you. Looks like there was a wait period of 72 hours before I could book it. The room and the view were breathtaking
Hey Nick,
We’re currently in LAS so a couple of thoughts for other potential visitors):
Rio:
Globalist get auto renovated rooms, resort fees waived, 2-4 daily bottles of water (depending on who you ask), we asked very nicely and they provided a high chair in the room with a tray, Hash House A Go Go portions are HUGE so order conservatively (it actually makes us sad to see how much food is thrown away!), Hash House Globalist breakfast credit is dine in only (they changed that as of April 4th), pool area closes at 5PM, they have renovated 1 bedroom rooms in the Inpanema tower, the Inpanema tower rooms have been upgraded with RFID readers (for room keys), we’ve noticed a LOT less restaurant flyers slid under the door/left in the door, you should ask for your 4PM checkout at minimum the day before departure
Fontainebleau:
Food credit ($150) via the Fontainebleau match has to be used all at one time. In other words, if you only spend $100 you’ll be out the remaining $50.
Thanks for the notes! I would have expected dining credit to be a use-it-or-lose it at once thing — the Resorts World one (from Ocean Prime) was notable for not being that way, but usually casino match dining credit is a use it all at once sort of thing.
And I’m familiar with Hash House a Go Go. They had one (maybe they still do?) in the Imperial Palace (which is now the LINQ) back in the day. Hash House a Go Go is well known for its massive portions — but it’s a good warning for those who don’t know what they’re getting into.
How did the breakfast benefit work? Was it one entrée per person or some sort of max credit? I haven’t looked into how it works there since Hyatt launched there.
As for breakfast, as soon as you sit down you’ll want to let the waiter know you’re a Globalist so they can code the receipt properly (if you happen to forget, don’t worry as you can fix it at the cashier), and when you go to the cashier you’ll be asked for your room number, ID, and your signature to comp the breakfast.
As best as we can tell it’s ‘one entrée per person’ (up to ‘two adults/two children’, standard Hyatt verbiage) but the execution on how much you can order (if you can order more than one entrée for example) really depends on the waiter.
What’s really nice (for us) is that we can go to breakfast separately at different times of the morning, due to work schedules/prior obligations/baby duty, and still follow the ‘one entrée per person’ rule
Breakfast is 7-11AM Monday – Sunday but be sure you put your name on the wait list (in case there’s one) before 11AM (the restaurant is open until 4PM) so they’ll honor your Globalist benefit.
Finally, if you don’t finish your meal, which is common because the portions are massive, you can ask for a ‘to-go’ box without issue.
We hope that helps! 🙂
I did a status match from Caesars to Wynn it was my birthday. I got the 150 credit and we went to the buffet. Cost..just the tip❤️ working on the Holland cruise now.
@Nick Reyes Reyes got back yesterday. Caesars reports needing 100 tier credits to get the celebration dinner and also told me it would take until the next tues for it to load. I did the 100 credits on tues but “missed the cutoff” so wasn’t able to use my celebration dinner on the trip. Tried 3 times over 3 days with different people same story. So if yours doesn’t show on your card prior to arrival this may be the new normal although as always YMMV.
Did you actually try going to a restaurant and asking if they could see it on your account?
Did you just match to Diamond on this trip, or were you Diamond before the trip? For how long?
My diamond appeared a little more than a week before the trip. I tried at a resteraunt (nothing showing) and also went to the reward desk (3 times) where I got the we don’t activate that until 100 pts now and they do them in batches usually on Tuesday so u missed the cutoff as you earned your points too late on tuesday.
Ok, bummer — but great data point. I’m going to test by earning 100 tier points on 2 accounts prior to our trip (plenty of time to earn that via the SB app) and I’ll leave one that matched a couple of weeks ago with no tier credits and we’ll see if maybe having Diamond farther in advance automatically loads it without the tier credits. Thanks!
Look forward to hearing the results. Due to local rules I had no ability to earn tier pts in my home state prior to the trip…
@Nick Reyes Reyes, Hello Nick, What is the SB app and how to earn Caesars tier points? Do you have to bet real money on it?Thank you
Hi Nick:
Can you match Wyndham Diamond status to Caesars Diamond status every year? When I matched Mlife gold to Caesar Diamond, I was told by Caesars that the status match can only be matched once.
Thank you for clarifying!!
Yes.
These are two totally different things.
1) Caesars will match your status from a competitor (another casino) only if you are a new Caesars Diamond player and only once. So if you’re matching from another casino (like MGM Gold or Wynn Platinum or whatever), this is a one-time thing only as a new player.
2) Caesars has a partnership with Wyndham (they are partners, not competitors!). Each side gives reciprocal elite status to each others’ members (presumably to drive business for both sides). So Wyndham Diamond members can match to Caesars Diamond (and vice versa). This can be done every year — it’s a benefit offered so that Caesars can tap into Wyndham’s customer base and Wyndham can tap into Caesars customer base.
The reason they offer #2 again and again is because it’s a partnership designed to benefit both sides versus a match meant to steal another casino’s high rollers. They’re only going to try to steal the other casino’s high rollers once because presumably that person is going to come gamble heavily at Caesars now that they don’t need to start at the bottom — if they don’t, then giving them status again just doesn’t make sense from a business standpoint.
Hope that makes sense.
To paraphrase a couple of lines from a song, You can’t always Google what you want. But if you try sometime, you’ll Google what you need.
I had actually never heard of this site when it popped up in my Google feed as one of the stories I might be interested in. I definitely was.
My wife and I missed out on saying goodbye to Tropicana, but we did not want to miss out on saying goodbye to Beatles Love so we had a Vegas trip booked before this story showed up as a Google suggestion.
I am a Caesars Diamond player and while I knew about the Fontainebleau tier match offer and was going to take advantage, I did not know about the Wynn tier match offer.
Had I not read about this story, I would have missed out on the Wynn tier match and would have missed out on the increased benefit that would give me at Fontainebleau as compared to matching my Caesars Diamond directly to Fontainebleau.
So a BIG thank you to Nick Reyes.
And thanks to my fellow readers so I know I can go to Wynn, get their player’s card even though the benefits might not be available for seven days, and then go to Fontainebleau to get tier matched.
The seven day wait at the Wynn, and the benefit available only in a player’s birth month, gives us incentives to go back again this year.
Happy birth month to me.
Welcome! Glad to have you here :-).
FYI, while the terms say that the Wynn match takes 7 days, we’ve had numerous reports from people that it happens instantly (or same day anyway) and I heard from someone last night who used the $100 spa credit right away.
I have a question about obtaining Ocean Prime status.
Before I get to the question though, I have to admit when you mentioned Ocean Prime it threw me because there is a restaurant chain named Ocean Prime and we have a location near me. I did an internet search and realized Ocean was a casino and Prime was a player level.
Anyway, I digress.
Except for my Caesars Diamond, which comes from a local casino, all my statuses will be from tier matching at Vegas casinos and that will include Hard Rock Icon status.
May I take that Hard Rock Icon player’s card from Vegas to Ocean in Atlantic City and get the Prime status so that I can get the benefit of free nights at Resorts World in Vegas?
Thank you for your time.
I have since did some research and I think I answered my own question. It would seem I cannot do what I was thinking I can, but if I can, I would like to know..
Yes you can! I love that the free Resorts World stay can even be used on a weekend. And there’s no resort fees or anything. Solid deal.
With Ocean Prime, you also get a free cruise of up to 10 nights in an ocean view cabin anywhere in the world on MSC. You pay a $400 deposit that you get back as an onboard credit (and that can be used in the casino). I cruised with them in Europe last year (from Genoa to Marseille, France; Alicante, Cadiz, and Minorca Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and Olbia, Sardinia. Then we did a Caribbean cruise with them a couple of months ago — and we have another one scheduled in Europe this summer (there used to be another cruise match that is no longer).
https://frequentmiler.com/how-to-get-free-cruises-by-gaming-casino-status-matches/
If you match to Ocean Prime any time now, it automatically gets extended to 6/30/25, so you just have to sail by then. We only have a few data points on this, but since their status year ends on 6/30 and your initial card from them has that expiration date, I think that if you had the time you could get a free cruise before 6/30/24 and another one between 7/1/24 and 6/30/25 if you had that kind of flexibility.
If you’re playing the game in two-player mode, another step (that’s not in this guide at the moment, but I should update in the next couple of days), you could probably go with your spouse to MGM and match your Caesars Diamond or Wynn Platinum to MGM Gold and then your spouse could also match to Icon at Hard Rock Atlantic City and onward to Ocean Prime, giving you the chance to book two cruises.
More detail here: https://frequentmiler.com/how-to-get-free-cruises-by-gaming-casino-status-matches/
[…] Frequent Miler At the beginning of the month, news broke that Wynn Las Vegas is offering a temporary status match. That match includes the opportunity to get a complimentary Holland America cruise for two in an oceanview cabin. If you’ve been reading this blog over the past couple of years, you know that if you want me […] …more […]
The status at Wynn doesn’t kick in for 7 days after matching so using your spa credit on this trip is not an option. I was told FHR counts towards the cruise two night stay requirement.
But will you get the status and Wynn Platinum card right away? to match to Fontainebleau Gold same day?
I got the card right away and was told status wouldn’t show up for 7 days and didn’t bother checking while in town. I’m told status shows up right away by some though
Yeah, there have been plenty of reports of status showing up right away. What the terms say don’t always match real-world experience.
Thank you for answering Yifty’s question which is the same one I had.
Before reading your answer, I imagined have to do a turn and burn to Vegas so I could have the Wynn card to tier match at Fontainebleau during our next trip.
I really, really love Holland America Cruises. Great food, Classical Music offerings, comparatively very few drunks and no kids. Also I feel like a youngster compared to the vast majority of the other PAX, and I am almost 69 years old.
Each Cruise Company serves a particular niche, this is not a family Cruise line in any way, shape or form.
Book one of their newer ships, the older, smaller ships are rust buckets.
Have the grandparents watch the kids while you 2 go on your Cruise to avoid the dirty looks. IMHO
and pay for a balcony or suite, you have the means….I would shoot myself if I had an interior cabin. At this pace you will burn yourself out on taking these “Free Cruise”, steerage class trips……..classic case of more is less.
Glad you like HAL! And I can concur that based on our Alaska cruise last year, the crowd definitely skews far older (we knew that going in).
That said, it was still fine with a family. Again, we knew it was not geared toward families / kids — it would have probably been more of an issue if we didn’t know that before going into it. There was still a kids club (there just weren’t many kids on our cruise — 18 in total I think). There was definitely less for the kids to do on the ship, but we still had fun in port and they were happy enough with ice cream when we could get it.
For a lot of reasons, we won’t be leaving our kids with grandparents to go take a trip / cruise without them. I neither noticed dirty looks nor would I have cared about them unless my kids were misbehaving — in which case, I would care about their behavior, not the looks.
I notice that the Caesars Rewards website has updated their benefits page. They now have a footnote by the Celebration dinner that says that you need 100 tier credits to qualify for the benefit. Disappointing, but I typically spend more than $100 with Caesars throughout the course of a year, so getting that shouldn’t be too hard. I’d rather get it up front, though.
After reading your comment, I went to the benefits page and I am not seeing what you saw.
Not that I have to worry about it because I already have over one hundred tier credits this year so far
With Caesars, I make my tier level the old fashioned way. I earn it.
A little 80s TV commercial reference for those who don’t get it.
After status matching and getting the free cruise, when would it expire? Would you be able to book the cruise in 2025? Or does it have a set “use it or lose it” timeline.
We wrote a post that I linked to about the Wynn match. Find more details here: https://frequentmiler.com/wynn-las-vegas-status-match-get-a-free-holland-america-cruise-with-caesars-diamond-with-some-gotchas/
Short story: We don’t know for sure. I initially assumed you must cruise by January 31, 2025 because that’s when Wynn status ends. Then someone in the MilesTalk Facebook group said that a casino rep told him June 30, 2025, but that MilesTalk member emphasized that the casino rep seemed very much unsure. Then Dave of MilesTalk did the match a few days ago and his initial response on the cruise is that it has to be sailed by January 31, 2025.
Since this match has only been on for a couple of weeks, I don’t think we have enough data points yet to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, but I’m going into it thinking it probably has to be used by January 2025 and we’ll plan accordingly unless and until I hear otherwise.
Did we confirm we can use FHR for Wynn nights to count towards cruise?
Someone else reported being told that they would qualify. I don’t think I’ve seen any data points of certainty, but it seems logical to me that they would qualify when you consider that most stays for Platinum level Wynn members will be comped or on some sort of a discounted casino offer yielding less value to the hotel side than FHR (and those would obviously count).
Still, the safest bet is booking direct until we get a confirmed DP. At this point, I don’t think we yet have a confirmed data point from anyone who has actually booked the cruise.
How soon could you use the credits at Fontainebleau?
Lots of readers have reported that those work right away.
Can’t speak to the spa, but we used our dining credits in about a half hour after signing up, and that was just picking a place to eat. Visited about a month ago
Once you get the card put it in a slot to activate it. You can use credit right away after that.
When you status match, are you therefore automatically matched as long as you maintain your Wyndham status, or do you have to go through this process manually every year?
It sounds like you’re talking about Wyndham to Caesars, right? You have to do that match again every year on or after 2/1.
Sorry. I am confusing some matches here. How long are you matched to Wynn? For a year, or perpetually? And do you have to go back through this process next year to maintain your status? Thanks.
I linked to our post about the Wynn match within this post in a couple of places. You can read full details about it here: https://frequentmiler.com/wynn-las-vegas-status-match-get-a-free-holland-america-cruise-with-caesars-diamond-with-some-gotchas/
To answer your question, the Wynn status year ends 1/31/25. You’ll have Wynn status until then (assuming you match before this offer ends; it is currently scheduled to end 5/31/24). There is no “go back through this process next year” with Wynn. This match is only on April and May 2024. They could bring it back again in the future, but I wouldn’t count on it being an annual thing. Before this, I think the last time that Wynn offered a status match was almost three years ago in 2021 (during the pandemic). It’s uncommon for Wynn to match.
That answers my question. Thank you.
I thought the Caesars status match was only valid for new Caesars Rewards members, and you can’t renew the match each year. Is that not correct?
That is not correct.
You’re confusing two different things.
If get the Wyndham Earner Business credit card, that gives you Wyndham Diamond status. Then you take your Wyndham Diamond status and because Wyndham and Caesars have a partnership (whereby, for example, you can transfer points between Wyndham and Caesars), you can match your Wyndham Diamond to Caesars Diamond.
If you do not go via that route and instead you have, for example, MGM Gold and you want to match to Caesars Diamond, it is only possible to match from another casino program like that if you are a new Caesars Rewards member and that’s a one-time deal.
So, to recap: the match from Wyndham to Caesars is annual and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a new or existing member. The match from another casino to Caesars is new members only one-and-done.
Wyndham status match to Caesars is a yearly thing and separate from matching other casinos to Caesars
I am here at Rio now! In a rio renovated suite, with fantastic breakfast, resorts world stay this weekend with spa and dinner credits. Great article!! The amount of value I have received from these guides is incredible Nick thank you
Awesome, glad to hear it! I’m jealous — I wanted to check out the newly renovated rooms at Rio! Not everybody loves Resorts World, but I do. As long as you don’t go in with expectations of like “Hilton” service at a Las Vegas resort, you’ll be fine. It’s primarily a Las Vegas resort that happens to be affiliated with Hilton. I think there is a lot to love.