Kaleb's family planned a vacation to the Ocean City beach house for the week of July 4th, so we made our way there. How fitting to celebrate Independence Day in one of the original 13 colonies!
Wednesday morning, Kaleb and I boarded a very early flight to Baltimore, then drove a rental car to Ocean City, NJ. Traffic was heavy due to the holiday weekend. We stopped by Sam's Club in Pleasantville to stock up on food. The rest of the family had already arrived earlier in the week.
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As it is a small world, it turned out that Tori, a friend of the family, was staying just a few houses away, only finding out when everyone ran into each other at the beach. We ended up spending time with her and her husband Mike the rest of the week.
360 spherical image of the beach on July 4, taken with the Ricoh Theta S: (click here if you cannot see the preview below)
At the beach in Ocean City - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
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After dinner, everyone gathered for a fireworks display by the ocean. Atlantic City (in the distance to the northeast) also lit up the sky. Happy Fourth of July, America!
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The remaining days were spent lazily at the ocean, chilling on the front porch, or visiting the boardwalk. Not everything we ate is pictured, like Brown's donuts, or Kohr Bros frozen custard.
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On Saturday, we made a run with Kate and Jarrett to Atlantic City in order for Kaleb to get a status match to Mlife Gold, similar to what I did last year. We went to Harrah's to print out his Caesars Rewards Diamond card (matched from Wyndham Rewards Diamond using Hilton Honors Gold status that came complimentary from having the American Express Platinum Card), then headed next door to the Borgata to match to Mlife Gold. The match included free $100 slot play and a complimentary hotel night - not useful as we weren't planning to return to Atlantic City the rest of the year. The great thing about the slot play was that any money remaining in the machine after betting $100 was yours to keep. Kate had a lucky streak on the slot machine so we ended up cashing out $80, split between the two couples. Some of the money was spent on delicious gelato and scrumptious pastries-to-go from the Borgata Baking Company.
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In case you're wondering, why do this matching status thing? There are valuable benefits to having these higher level statuses, if you travel enough to take advantage:
- Caesars Rewards Diamond: $100 "celebration dinner" credit (which we've used at Hell's Kitchen in Las Vegas), free parking, no resort fees, priority lines, complimentary stay at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas (which we have yet to redeem since it takes forever to get there from the West Coast), match to Wyndham Rewards Diamond
- Wyndham Rewards Diamond: suite upgrades, welcome amenity at check-in, match to Caesars Rewards Diamond
- Mlife Gold: free parking, priority lines, match to Hyatt Explorist. You can also get free $125 onboard credit on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity if you book direct through the cruise line.
- Hyatt Explorist: Room upgrades, priority lines, late checkout, bottled water, premium internet, match to Mlife Gold
Status usually expires after one year, but fortunately, the expiration dates do not fall on the same day for Caesars/Wyndham and Mlife/Hyatt. One can re-match to the other to regain lost status, easily done online. This keeps this loop going indefinitely until the terms change. I put annual reminders on my calendar to make sure I keep re-matching statuses as they expire.
Initially getting the status is the hardest part (staying the nights or gambling enough), but you may already have it in your grasp if you are a frequent cruiser or have elite status at a hotel chain:
- Celebrity Cruises Select status or above matches to at least Mlife Gold
- Royal Caribbean Emerald status or above matches to at least Mlife Gold
- Various hotel status levels (which you can achieve by having the right credit card) match to Wyndham Rewards Diamond (temporarily suspended at the time of this writing, keep checking back)
Once you have Mlife Gold, you can match to Hyatt Explorist, then loop indefinitely. If you can get to any participating Caesars casino, you can also match to Caesars Rewards Diamond (ongoing until December 31, 2020 at the time of this writing), which would be used to match to Wyndham Rewards Diamond.
If you have Wyndham Rewards Diamond from hotel status match, you can match to Caesars Rewards Diamond. Then if you can get to the Borgata (or possibly the MGM Grand Las Vegas - use Google for more info), you can match to Mlife Gold, then to Hyatt Explorist.
It's only worth going through the trouble if you travel enough to take advantage of the benefits. Now that I've made your brain hurt and eyes glaze over with the whole matching-looping rigmarole, let's finish writing about this trip...
With our stay at the beach house at an end, we headed back to Pennsylvania and spent the remaining time with family and friends before returning to the West Coast.
The only lounge at Baltimore airport is the Club at BWI, located in Concourse D. We were flying Southwest Airlines, which was in the other terminal. We had several hours to kill so we decided to brave going through security twice - once at Concourse D to enter the lounge, then again to get to our Southwest flight in Concourse C.
We used our complimentary Priority Pass membership to enter the Club at BWI. The lounge had a decent food offering. The brownies were pretty good.
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Since it was a long flight, and Southwest only passes out crackers, chips and pretzels during beverage service, we purchased food before boarding.
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And that ends our July 4th trip to the East Coast - a short but fun time with family and friends. Ocean City, NJ is a great place for families with an expansive beach, nostalgic boardwalk and carefree atmosphere. Did you know that it is a "dry" town? (no alcohol sold within city limits) You can bring your own or buy it just outside the city, at places like Circle Liquor in Somers Point.
Our jaunt to Atlantic City was very fruitful, with a successful status match and unexpected money in our pockets. I always enjoy visiting the Borgata and that delicious bakery and sweet shop.
In the meantime, where to next? A girls' birthday weekend trip to Napa...stay tuned!
(Missed reading about our trip to Las Vegas with my brother's family? Click here! Don't miss a single update! Click here to have the latest delivered straight into your inbox...opt out anytime.)
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
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