Haunt Jaunting to Key West and Nassau, Bahamas

Tomorrow Wayne and I leave on our cruise to Key West, Florida, and Nassau, Bahamas.

After our trip to Cape San Blas earlier this year, I learned I didn’t do enough due diligence about haunted places there before we left. I changed my strategy this go around. I used the links on my Find Haunted Places page to compile a more thorough list of possible haunts to jaunt to while we’re away this time.

Here’s what I came up with.

KEY WEST

The first thing I checked out was ghost tours. I found a few:

1. The Original Ghost Tours: Discover Haunted Key West,
2. Key West Ghost Tour, and
3. The Ghosts & Legends of Key West.

However, then I realized we won’t be there at night (ship’s only in port from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.), so no go on the ghost tours.

However, some of their websites also gave me clues about haunted places I could check out on my own while we’re in Key West. Such as:

• The Audubon House
• St. Paul’s Cemetery (which I already knew of thanks to Shadowlands Haunted Places Index)
• Heritage House Museum, and
• the Otto Mansion

Also, most of these places seem to be located in Old Town Key West. One of the excursions our cruise line offers is the Old Town Trolley Tour. It would be a handy way for us to take in some of the alleged haunted places of Old Town Key West –along with some others I came across in my research, like:

• Fort Zachary Taylor State Park (which I learned of via UneartlyRealms)
• the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum
• the Artist House B&B, and
• Ocean Key House Resort

(The last three were revealed by Shadowlands.)

However, Wayne’s not too key on me spending our precious time in Key West Haunt Jaunting all around the city. He wants to do the catamaran snorkel tour excursion.

He really wanted to try and get to Dry Tortugas National Park. I was all about that. It not only looks like an amazing place to explore as is, but it also has a haunted history. I could’ve snuck in a Haunt Jaunt on him! However, the times to get there and back don’t mesh with our ship’s time in Key West. Sigh.

However, after I came across this old article from October 29, 2000 by Alissa MacMillan, “The Scariest Sites Around: A spirited guide to a host of haunted houses,” I hope I get a chance to explore Key West. Any place with hauntings that make the same list as Gettysburg, Salem, and New Orleans is a place I want to explore!

NASSAU, BAHAMAS

This is our port of call for Thanksgiving Day. We’ve been to Nassau before. On our first cruise. That time we toured the Pirates of Nassau museum and took the water taxi over to Paradise Island to hang out on the beaches. Didn’t get much skinny on any ghosts then.

However, the paranormal was on my mind. I was keenly aware of and excited about being in the Bermuda Triangle.

As a young girl growing up in 1970s Denver, the Bermuda Triangle fascinated me. (Well, that and spontaneous combustion, something Autumnforest covered not too long ago on her blog. Growing up I remember hearing about both a lot and being absolutely enthralled with the horrors they presented.) I never imagined I would actually ever be anywhere near the Bermuda Triangle though. (And I certainly hope I never have any kind of first hand experience with spontaneous combustion!)

But now I get to go back to the BT!  Too bad I can’t get to the Bahamian islands Josh Gates and his team visited on Destination Truth. (For a great recap of that episode, see Above the Norm’s write-up on it.)

But as far as haunted locations, the most promising prospects in Nassau appear to be

• Blackbeard’s Tower
• the Cloisters
• Fort Charlotte, and
• the old Eastern Cemetery where pirates, criminals and rogues are buried.

Some place I would love to Haunt Jaunt to in the Bahamas is the ruins of the old Stewart mansion on Harbour Island. Any place with a legend of an entire family just vanishing? (Allegedly the table was set with a sumptuous dinner but the family was nowhere to be found and was never heard of again. It’s often compared to the mystery of the Mary Celeste.) Well…what Haunt Jaunter wouldn’t want to check such a place out? I can’t help but wonder if it’s proximity to the Bermuda Triangle had anything to do with the disappearances. It’s all deliciously intriguing!

Harbour Island isn’t that far from Nassau. However, like with Dry Tortugas and Key West, given the time we’ll have in Nassau (noon to 10 p.m.), it’s not enough time to get there and back.

Ah, so close and yet so far…story of my life.

WHILE I’M AWAY

I’ve set up a few entries to post while I’m gone. Mostly some fun stuff. I’ll be sure to write about any haunted adventures we might have when I return. If we return and the Bermuda Triangle doesn’t gobble us up, that is! (“Gobble,” get it? Since that’s where will be on Thanksgiving.)

Speaking of which…I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!