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Reflecting back on the funniest night of my lift photography career

I will never EVER forget the night where I had the funniest time filming a lift. This was also the night where I broke two records: riding & filming the fastest lift I've ridden by myself & the tallest lift I've ridden by myself. 

Going to the Borgata

Picture this: it was 9:00 PM at night & I was going to the Borgata hotel from the 15-story Courtyard by Marriott Hotel I was staying at a mile down the road. I arrived at this magnificent, 43-story building with a facade with colorful, shiny lights going all over the place on it. At the top of the building, I saw a colorful sign called "BORGATA".

Then I went to my first set of lifts at the Borgata, but there was a very big security camera which made me afraid to film them. They were very fast Otis Gen2 lifts & despite not even going 10 floors, it took not even 20 seconds to get from the top of the carpark to the casino level of the hotel. I rode the lift down to the casino & from there, we walked down this never-ending corridor. It wasn't until we actually got to the lobby of the Water Club Tower where I bumped into this handsome security guard who was standing by the lifts. He saw that I was just a visitor & automatically gave me permission to film the lifts in the hotel, which was shocking because I thought I WASN'T allowed to film them.


First lift

When I got to the first lift, it was a 30 story OTIS Elevonic 411 lift, the one nearest to the glass entrance door to the lift lobby. When the doors closed, I thought it was going to be a casual 30-story speed, but it went much faster, as in the speed you'd expect for a 50-story hotel. The lift soared from the lobby to the mezzanine floor so quickly, I didn't even have time to count the number of seconds which went by, also due to the fact that the A/D rate was ridiculously huge. On this ride up, I did yell the name of my favorite city to film lifts, but I did NOT film it, neither did I film it for the ride back down.

Second lift

After chilling in the lobby for a few minutes to take a break & silently document the characteristics of the lift, sitting back on the sofa facing the front desk, I got up to go back to the lifts, however, this time, I did not touch any buttons. The lift made a stop on floor 4, where it picked up a guy with a snorkel on. He & I rode the lift to his floor, but then I lit the button for the floor directly above his & got off there. After contemplating whether I should just go back down to the lobby, or continue my way up the 30-story secret Water Club tower, I decided to go with what my mind was telling me & continue. I got back in the lift before the doors could close, this time, filming it. I lit the button for floor 30, the doors closed & the little behemoth tossed me the rest of the way up the tower at a super high speed. It took me not even SECONDS to get up there.

After that happened, I lit the button for floor L. The doors closed & I kept my mouth for the entire ride down, however, making a pit-stop on floor 9 to pick up more hotel guests.

Third lift

After dropping those guests off at the lobby, I refused to exit the lift, re-lit the button for floor 30 & stood to the back of the lift, zooming the camera directly towards the numbers. As soon as I felt the A/D, I immediately (on camera) yelled out the name of my favorite city to film lifts, of course, chuckling for the whole nonstop trip.

Going back down was even funnier because I chuckled as I was lighting the button for floor L. I stood back & the lift just dropped down 5 floors before violently decelerating towards floor 25 to pick up more guests. I was so frightened by the unexpected violent A rate that I just started screaming the s-word, followed by the name of my favorite city to film lifts.

Last lift

After riding up & down the absolutely epic high speed 30-story Otis lifts countless times, I saw the time & it was almost 10 at night. I rode down the middle lift on the north side of the bank to the first floor. While the doors were closing on floor 30, it started buzzing, so that got my fear factory moving for sure. When the lift doors were done closing, the lift started dropping a few floors before flying at a controlled rate (350 meters per minute) down the tower. I growled the name of my favorite city to film lifts & then it took a long time for the lift to decelerate once it reached the lobby floor. I counted about 10 or 12 seconds. While this isn't as slow as a NYC Generic, that's still kind of slow. When the doors opened on the lobby, I immediately got out of the lift, stopping my camera. We then went to a diner after that at the back of the hotel with all my FRIRNDS. I showed them the video & they fell through the floor laughing.
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