Greetings, you may call me….keeper for I am the keeper of tales. Haunt season is upon us and your pal keeper is in a spooky kinda mood. I thought it might be useful to go over some of the year-round options for those that can't get enough ghosts and ghouls. At least once a year we venture north to get away from the hustle and bustle hawaii cruise family vacation package of the modern day theme parks and kick it old school at the oldest theme park of them all, St Augustine. Over the course of time we've experienced most of the ghost tour attractions there and thought a guide to the options available for first time visitors might be helpful. So put on your comfy shoes and grab your mosquito repellant as we explore the oldest city after dark.
A couple hawaii cruise family vacation package dozen years ago you're options for after dusk entertainment in the old city were pretty slim. With the exception of the Ripley Museum (creepy in and of itself) the tourist hawaii cruise family vacation package attractions closed up at 5PM. If you were looking for anything beyond a guy in a pub singing "Cats in the Cradle" hawaii cruise family vacation package then you were in the wrong 'berg. That all changed in 1994 when Sandy Craig of Tour St Augustine sight seeing company saw the possibility and created "A Ghostly Experience".
She utilized the company's infrastructure and tour guides, added some period costumes, a lantern, and some darker stories and as they say…the rest was history. The tour was still PG rated but in addition to the family crowd also attracted the younger 20-something crowd which was a new market for the tour company. A night of ghost stories and bar hopping became the new cool thing to do. The idea became an overnight success which spun-off books, hawaii cruise family vacation package audio and video of the stories. Further down the line they also added The Ghost of the Matanzas sailing tour and the Ghosts and Gravestones riding tour. In the Ghost and Graveyards hawaii cruise family vacation package tour you ride a special black trolley around town and go into the Oldest Drugstore, the Spanish Military Hospital, hawaii cruise family vacation package and the Old Jail after hours, there is still walking involved but it's a great option for those that don't have the stamina for walking for 60-90 minutes at the end of a long day. The Ghost of the Matanzas tour is even slower paced; you hear the stories from aboard a sailing schooner while seeing the city from the water. It's the option for those with young adventurers in the group. Although the same stories, they aren't hawaii cruise family vacation package as scary when told from a distance as opposed to standing in front of, say a cemetery, hearing hawaii cruise family vacation package a story about it. It's difficult to quote prices hawaii cruise family vacation package as these things are always subject to the market but as a general guide you will pay as much for a walking tour as you might for a movie ticket, the riding tour about twice as much, and the sailing tour three times as much.
This started out being a similar hawaii cruise family vacation package walking tour as A Ghostly Experience but evolved into a tour that takes you inside the Spanish Military Hospital and Old Drugstore in addition hawaii cruise family vacation package to the usual walking stops. I suppose I should mention that there are a limited amount of ghost stories in town so no matter which tour you take you should hawaii cruise family vacation package expect to hear a story at each of the cemeteries, the fort, and some bed breakfast locations in addition to the advertised sites. hawaii cruise family vacation package Although all tell versions of the same stories, as in most good tales, the enjoyment is in seeing how each guide brings hawaii cruise family vacation package their own personality and perspective to it. The guides run the gambit to Flagler college students to retirees to people moonlighting (literally!) after their day job. On a nice night with a cool breeze it's got to be a wonderful way to get some exercise and meet interesting visitors on a cold or rainy night it is a true labor of love.
Once again A Ghostly Experience paved the way to more competition. The folks at the Red Train couldn't stand those black trolleys sucking up evening tourist dollars so they painted some trains black and created the Ghost Train.
Because the trains were bought by the Ripley's organization hawaii cruise family vacation package the Ghost Train takes you into a dark Ripley's Museum after driving hawaii cruise family vacation package you around town. You are also given a EMF ghost meter to use and a disposable camera to keep because the game here is that the ghosts are real and you can detect them and take pictures of them. As you might suspect hawaii cruise family vacation package your pal keeper is more interested hawaii cruise family vacation package in the stories than catchin' him some ghosts, but I must admit that being inside hawaii cruise family vacation package Castle Warden at night is enough to make even the most earthbound of us think twice.
A more recent player to the ghost biz has added a couple new ideas to the mix. It's fascinating to me watching the creativity that has fueled this market. I guess, in a sense, it's kind of like when theme parks were starting out and every idea was a new idea. It's been a treat to watch this ghost industry blossom and grow in an area close enough to home that I can see it develop first hand. In 2001 Ghost St Augustine joined the after hours gang with their Haunted Pub Tour and Hearse Ride tour.
I'm shocked no one thought of the Pub Crawl approach before. It's perfect for the bar crowd who will end up at a nearby pub after their tour is finished anyways. As the name implies you walk from pub to pub and sit in air-conditioning while sipping hawaii cruise family vacation package on a cool beverage (not included or mandatory) and listening to ghost stories. It's the modern version of sitting by the campfire and is a perfect fit. We found the pub employees hawaii cruise family vacation package not pushy at all and many even offered to bring a glass of water if we chose not to have a drink. I wish I could say the same about the hearse ride; it is such a cool concept that I can't fault them too much but it is an authentic (real OLD) hearse and has no air conditioning. If that doesn't scare you off bear in mind that it's not designed for passengers, if you end up in the f-a-r back (you know…the spot you all want to fight for) the hatch back-type window hawaii cruise family vacation package DOES NOT OPEN. The night we rode I got a decent seat but others in our group were just plain suffering. A shame too because the hearse took us to some different areas of town and we got a couple unique stories because of the new locations. Undaunted Ghost St Augustine recently might have solved even this issue with their "Pub Hearse Ride", which combines their two offerings. The big advantage hawaii cruise family vacation package I see is if you get enough embalming fluid in you…the heat may not matter.
Although their communication and reservation system leaves hawaii cruise family vacation package a lot to be desired. If you can fight your way thru it you get a unique experience. Trains, trolleys and hearses are all nice (and less bumpy) but when hearing stories hundreds of years old it just FEELS right to hear them from a horse drawn carriage.
Called the History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder tour. How can you pass up a title like that? They billed it as a REAL tour with real stories of the darker side of St Augustine. Not too much in the way of new stories but I liked the back –to-basics hawaii cruise family vacation package approach and that our guide never mentioned hawaii cruise family vacation package the word "orb" during our entire time together. Add that to his dry sense of humor and there are some real possibilities for this company in the future.
hawaii cruise family vacation package From what I can gather hawaii cruise family vacation package it's a one man operation, the sheriff took our resies over the phone, checked us in, and took us around town. I see he also does a daytime history tour which might be a future adventure. A great storyteller, plus he has a six-shooter so I can't say too much bad anyways
P.S.-In researching this article I noticed A Ghostly Experience has added a paranormal investigation tour that takes place in Potters hawaii cruise family vacation package Wax Museum after hours! Just the thought of it makes me want to take a trip back for another adventure real soon.
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