Free Cruises Earned in 2023

Author: Matthew December 20, 2023

I'm writing this blog from St. Thomas USVI while I'm on the first of three free cruises I obtained in 2023. Free meaning I'm only paying taxes and port fees for me and my second passenger (currently my dad). For this voyage, I only paid $380 TOTAL for seven nights in the Eastern Caribbean. I get an interior room, $100 casino credit, and free drinks in the casino. See how I got this and 2 other free cruise offers below and stay updated on WuhooPoints blog posts by subscribing here. 

Catch our vlog from the Carnival cruise here or below!

The Free Cruise Journey

There are generally two pathways to obtain free cruises without spending a ton of money to level up in casino loyalty levels. Both pathways utilize different hotel statuses to match to casino statuses, which then gets free cruises directly or matches to cruise statuses. One way is to get the Wyndham Business Earner Card, which gives Wyndham Diamond that can match directly to Caesar's Diamond. 

1. Hyatt Explorist

Seeing as how I was moving up on Hyatt's status chain to Globalist, it was very easy to start with getting Hyatt Explorist by achieving 30 nights with the chain this year made by both nights stayed and credit cards. I got this in April of this year. 

2. Match to MGM Gold

Before MGM ended its partnership with Hyatt, I was able to stop by MGM in National Harbor after work to match my Hyatt Explorist status to MGM Gold. I got my card and walked out without gambling a cent. 

4. Online Match-er-roo

With all my casino loyalty cards, I was then able to use them to contact cruise lines and get free cruise offers. I uploaded pictures of my MGM Gold and Caesar's Diamond to Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line. Both them came back with free cruise offers, details below. I also tried to match to Norwegian, but they said to try again later since they had so many matching requests during this time. Finally, Ocean Prime automatically gives me a free voyage with MSC Cruises. 

As a side note, I also matched my Caesar's Diamond to Wyndham Diamond. Next year, after my Caesar's Diamond status expires, I can actually rematch it again with my Wyndham Diamond status. 

The Results

After all that matching and absolutely no gambling of my own money, I earned the below offers. I also tried with several other cruise lines to no avail. There are others that I could potentially match my casino statuses or email offers to, but now I simply don't have the time to go on all these cruises. 

Holland America Line

Offer: Free cruise up to 7 nights in an interior room. The voyage includes a $100 casino credit. 

Booking: I initially wanted to go between Christmas and New Years, but it was a holiday blackout date. So my dad and I flexed to this week, before Christmas. We got a double bed, interior room and paid $380 total for a cruise that would have cost almost a couple grand.  A week ago, they offered a $99/person upgrade to the Verandah Stateroom with a balcony, and my dad decided to pay for it to get a nice upgrade. This usually costs over a grand per person. 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Offer: Free cruise up to 7 nights in any room up to an ocean balcony. The voyage includes a $200 cruise credit and $50 casino credit (which turned out to be straight cash).

Booking: Sarah and I got an Ocean View trip to the Bahamas from Orlando over MLK Day Weekend. While we could have went for a longer trip, this allows us not take any PTO. For taxes and port fees, we paid $468 total, for a cruise that would have cost over $1100. 

Bonus: Several of my Chase credit cards had an offer of spend $100, get $35 back, By splitting up payments, I saved an additional $105.

MSC Cruises

Offer: Free cruise up to 7 nights. 

Booking: TBD, but I'm looking at a 7-night cruise from Barcelona to Greece and Italy. 

2024 Free Cruise and Beyond

Unfortunately MGM and Hyatt ended their partenership this past Fall. So now I won't be able to rematch my Hyatt status with MGM gold and therefore, cuts me out of the loop for some casino status. I believe the Caesars and Wyndham Diamond matches are still live so I can still go through that way, but to be honest, three cruises within such a short timeframe is enough for me.