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If you are like most people, a relaxing cruise with most of your activities and meals included is an ideal way to spend your coveted vacation time. Years ago, my husband and I took a couple of cruises and really enjoyed the laid-back, low-planning approach to vacation. If only there were an easy way to use points and miles to get free cruises as we do with hotels and flights!
Cruising seemed outside of the points and miles world. Then, last year, I learned that I could use casino and hotel status to match my way to an almost-free cruise through the Carnival Players Club Fun Match Program.
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Casino Status Without Setting Foot in a Casino
The Carnival Fun Match allows you to submit proof online of status with a land-based casino. Once matched, Carnival will offer free or highly discounted cruises. It may sound too good to be true, but Carnival hopes that guests with loyalty to land-based competitors will apply the same loyalty to the casino on board the ship.
If you already have status with a casino loyalty program, such as MGM Rewards or Caesars Rewards, simply upload a copy of the front and back of your loyalty card to the Carnival Fun Match website. Then, wait for your offers to come via email.
But … I don’t gamble much. I mean, I enjoy a slot machine as much as the next person. I’m not, however, entering poker tournaments anytime soon. So how did I, a virtual gambling rookie, get Diamond status with Caesars? Wyndham Rewards matches status with Caesars, which means you can become a Caesars Diamond member without ever gambling or even setting foot in a casino!
So, how do you go from hotel loyalty to free cruises? Here's the process.
Tips for Completing the Carnival Fun Match
It's important to note that, although the Wyndham Earner Business Card gives you automatic Wyndham Diamond status, you can not use this status, gained through the credit card alone, to match to Caesars. That loophole ended in 2025. Now the language is clear that Caesars will only match Wyndham status gained through “Wyndham stay activity”.
That said, if you have Wyndham Diamond status earned through stays, one of the perks is the ability to match this status to Caesars Diamond. However, it doesn’t come automatically. You’ll need to match your status on the Caesars website. This process took me a few weeks, so your patience may be required.
Once your Caesars Rewards Diamond status is reflected in your account, take a screenshot of your card and use that to submit to the Carnival Fun Match. Note: The submission page asks for pictures of the front and back of the card, but you will only get a physical card if you go to a Caesars casino guest service desk in person.
My own experience—as well as numerous online data points—indicates that Carnival isn’t strict about this and usually accepts a screenshot of your card from the app or website. If you have any other casino loyalty status (MGM Rewards, Wynn Rewards, etc.), you can submit more than one to increase your chances of getting some good offers.
The Carnival Fun Match Offers Come Rolling In
A few days after I submitted my Carnival Players Club Fun Match, I started getting emails with offers from the Players Club. It is very common for the first few offers to be discounts rather than free cruise offers. My first offered up to $500 off. These are base offers, and you should continue to wait at least a few weeks for better offers to come through. Many people have noted that your entire profile must be complete before you’ll get good offers. Make sure you fill that out carefully!
About a month after my first emails from the Fun Match came through, I started to get the free cruise offers. My offer was for “Up to a Free Balcony Room.” You do not have to book the first offers you receive! Even though the email says you have to book by the end of the month, nearly everyone gets ensuing offers if you don’t book the first one. Furthermore, sometimes, the offers get better.
There were many available cruises included in this Carnival Fun Match offer: three-day cruises from Los Angeles to Mexico, a 16-day transatlantic repositioning journey, and many seven-day Western Caribbean options. There were even a few Alaskan cruises available. But very few of the bookable options were actually in balcony rooms. Note the important words in the offer: up to a free balcony room. Traveling during peak times will definitely limit the rooms available.
I could have waited for other sailings to open up. However, since I’m a teacher, my vacation time is pretty restricted to peak travel dates. In the end, we were happy to snag an eight-day cruise to the Caribbean on the Carnival Vista in a porthole room. It worked with my teacher's schedule, and I was able to book it over a year out. This worked well with our existing travel plans. We also could have paid to upgrade our room, but we decided we were fine with the room provided in the offer.
Free Isn’t Quite Free
The cruise may be “free,” but you will still have to pay a $100 deposit per person that you get back as onboard credit. Additionally, you will be responsible for port taxes and fees. For our eight-night cruise, we paid a total of $438, with $200 of that available as an onboard credit. You are also responsible for daily gratuities for the staff. Currently, those are $17 per person per day in a non-suite cabin.
The Carnival Fun Match offers include passage for two guests, but you can pay to add family members if your room can accommodate them. This became our “anniversary cruise” to Aruba, so we didn’t add the kids for this voyage.
All in, our “free” Carnival Fun Match anniversary cruise costs $694. However, that covers eight nights for two people. It even includes $50 free play in the casino, as well as free beverages while playing in the casino. We think it’s a fantastic deal. There is no requirement to play in the casino while on board. But with the free play and free beverages, you can bet I found my way to a few slot machines. Why not? It’s an almost-free cruise!
Related: Best Credit Cards for Travel Purchases
Bottom Line
The Carnival Fun Match has opened up the world of cruising again to our family—without breaking the bank. Thanks to a lesser-known hotel elite status, we enjoyed eight days of low-cost (and kid-free!) cruising. So, if you're yearning for a nearly-free cruise, this status match may be the key to your next fantastic adventure on the high seas.
Bottom line, you need to earn Wyndham Diamond status by first staying 40 nights with Wyndham.
Question-
Do you have to get the 60K in points on the Wyndham card before is it considered ‘Diamond Status’, or do you get that status, by just getting the card?
Meaning…Do I wait until I get the 60K before inking my Caesers acct to the Wyndham? Or just wait until I get the card.
Thank you-
Lydi
You get Wyndham Diamond elite status almost immediately after opening the card. My wife just recently got her own Wyndham Business Card and already has Diamond elite status even though she hasn’t earned the sign-up bonus yet.