I n the elevator on my way up to Mix at the top floor of the Delano hotel property in Las Vegas, I noticed that there were buttons on the panel which skipped from 39 to 60; so I simply thought to myself that the elevator was an express between those floors…
…but the hotel property is only 43 stories tall. How can than be?!?
Apparently, I understand that the number four is considered bad luck to people from China; so there are no floors numbered 40 through 49 to exacerbate that superstition. In addition, gamblers supposedly believe that a $50.00 bill is bad luck. Perhaps that explains why there are no floors numbered 50 through 59 at the Delano hotel property.
Superstitions in travel are amazing sometimes, about which I wrote in this article. I have been a guest at many hotels which number floor number 13 as the 14th floor, as 13 is considered an unlucky number.
The whole superstition about how a floor at a hotel is numbered is silly, in my opinion. Name the floor 13 stories up whatever you want; but it is still the 13th floor. If a hotel does not want guests to stay on the 13th floor, then use it for staff and other purposes. Store soiled laundry on that floor. Convert it into a long racquetball court. Throw the inconsiderate and noisy guests on that floor and isolate them from the rest of the guests in the hotel. Better yet: have them dodging ricocheting racquetballs all night long.
It is almost like naming the 13th Annual Brooklyn Reality Tour the 14th Annual Brooklyn Reality Tour. I am originally from Brooklyn — but what do I know? The ZIP code in which I lived was 11236 where all of the numerals add up to 13. The exit off of which I lived on the Belt Parkway was — and still is — numbered 13. There were 13 steps on each staircase in the house in which I lived.
The subway line which I regularly used in New York was the L train — only one letter away from being the 13th letter of the alphabet. It was once called the LL train — could the second L be worth one instead of ten similarly to how an ace can either be a worth one or ten when paired with a card such as a king in blackjack?
Come to think of it, I am surprised I lived past the age of 13…
…but now the topic has returned full circle back to Las Vegas, where I am typing and posting this article from the 13th floor of the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas hotel property…
