Professional Ghost Tour Guide Meet-Up
Last week I was very fortunate to attend the First ever Professional Ghost Tour Guide Conference, hosted by American Ghost Adventures in Orlando, Florida. Our fearless ghostess hostess, Ting, put together a fantastic weekend for us. We started by exchanging small offerings to share with our industry colleagues. Our items were small tokens to represent the location of our tours. I brought local roasted coffee with William McKinley on the label, made by Cherry Blend Coffee Roasters in Canton, Ohio, a couple post cards, and ……of course you can’t travel from Ohio without bringing buckeyes! I got so many rave reviews on the coffee that I am working on a partnership with them and Black Cat Tales & Tours. If you’re wondering the significance of President William McKinley, he and his wife Ida Saxton McKinley are from Canton, Ohio and a central focus of my tours.
There were just twelve of us in attendance in Orlando, but we exchanged ideas and tricks of the trade. I found the weekend to be invaluable and immensely fun. I learned about incorporating ghost hunting equipment into my tours, hosting local ghost dinners, and how to manage the timing when it comes to visiting pubs on our tours.
We stayed at the very old and haunted Wellborn, which was built in 1883. It’s not just “old”, it is THE oldest home in Orlando.
The furnishings were just lovely. My room had a screened porch that overlooked the courtyard and I even had visitors over the two nights of my stay. Ting brought two of her investigators to find out who might be visiting my room. (The air was very chilly the first night there. So cold that I couldn’t stop shivering. I couldn’t sleep at all. By the second night, after we made some contact with the entities, I had a peaceful sleep.) Downtown Orlando did not disappoint. Though it is often regarded as Disney, SeaWorld and Universal’s forgotten third cousin, the downtown area has a lot of potential, tons of history, and of course: ghosts.
Ting’s business is unique because not only do they offer tours and enter buildings, but she has a research area where she collects haunted objects. Guests test out ghost-hunting equipment to get more information about the multiple spirits who occupy her space.
I especially enjoyed learning about a spirit she and her team call “Pie Girl”. They call her this because one of the guides left a McDonald’s pie in a room that frequently has a lot of activity, and came back to find it was touched and moved. I really appreciated and enjoyed Ting’s willingness to share her tour with us and tell us the history and lore of each building we visited. I especially loved the building that used to house an Air B & B near the train tracks. Sadly, they couldn’t keep it in operation because people complained about the sound of the train and one other thing. Of course that other thing (which would actually entice ME to stay there even more) had to be: ghosts.
Ting showed us an energy vortex, which is a specific location on Earth which acts as a swirling center of energy, containing more earthly energy than any normal place would. One common belief in regard to energy vortexes is that they exist at the intersections of ley lines, or the random lines of natural energy that make up the Earth’s electromagnetic field. Many energy vortex locations are ancient or sacred sites, like Stonehenge or the Egyptian site of Giza, but there is also one right here in Orlando. A lot of crazy things go on at each venue on all four corners of this intersection.
For dinner on our first evening there we ate at an Irish Pub called Harp & Celt, which proved to be delicious with great service, great conversation, and of course: ghosts. In the bathroom I noticed that the ghost was playing a trick on me by turning the lights on and off. I was amused. As an added bonus, I got to meet up with my flight attendant friend and classmate, Stephanie for cocktails in the courtyard of our hotel. We were so busy laughing and talking that we forgot to take a photo together.
Day Two was busy and productive. We shared successes of our businesses and exchanged ideas and learned new best practices to enhance our success and increase revenue. We started with breakfast at Ember. A beautiful and delectable buffet was a great way to start our day.
We also got a tour of Dr. Phillips House, built in 1893.
Half of downtown Orlando is named after this guy, and his home serves as a wedding venue, as well as a bed and breakfast. This home is one of the few houses in Florida that has a basement. It is just beautiful inside and some of the things I was impressed with were: the architecture, the furnishings, the beautiful and tranquil courtyard, the tea kettle collection on display. And of course one other thing: the ghosts.
Ting has a great working relationship with this venue, so we were able to tour the home and fortuitously, she met a bride who is going to bring her wedding party on a ghost tour with American Ghost Adventures. Talk about being at the right place at the right time!
For our final evening we visited a murder mystery dinner theater, called Sleuths. The food was fantastic (I am still thinking of the key lime pie today) and the show was very cute, if not a little silly. But most of all, we got a chance to laugh and solve a crime with our industry colleagues.
Next year’s conference will be held in Richmond at Linden Row, which looks just as cool as our boutique hotel in Orlando. I can’t wait til next January to see my old friends from Orlando, some new faces, some old friends with new faces, and some new friends with old faces. And one other thing: the ghosts.
