Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum: My Review

Let me start this by saying that I don't classify myself as a firm believer or a skeptic; I'm more along the lines of "I don't have to believe it, but I'm not going to mess with it anyway". I call that 'superstitious', and boy, am I.

This is also my own thoughts and feelings of my experience at the museum.

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After learning about the existence of "Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum" some years ago, it's been on my bucket list. So for my birthday, I ditched the kids with Grandma and flew to Las Vegas, Nevada with my sister-in-law, my best friend, and our husbands.

I won't comment on the museum ticket prices, because there is a website for that and to make reservations, but I will say that I started with the basic tour tickets.

We had to wait outside for a bit for the previous tour groups to be done, but once they were ready, we were ushered into a lobby like area.

Once we went to buy the tickets, we got the up-sell pitch for the RIP experience; it was like $30 more but you get access to 5 more exhibits, a lanyard, a cool card, and a t-shirt. The shirt alone would be $30, so we all opted for the upsell.

We were encouraged to ask questions and the tour guide in the room with us was nice and personable.

One thing of note: the air is hot and heavy. I mean that literally. It was warm and hazy inside the buildings, to help enforce the creepy ambiance I'm sure.

A second thing of note is that there are video monitors everywhere showing snippets of previous guests who’d had an experience in the museum. I can’t testify to the authenticity of the videos but the people in them looked like they believed they had something happen. Some screamed, some fainted, nosebleeds, etc. And it’s videos from the security cameras in the museum so it’s not like an interview or anything.

While waiting in that lobby, our little group of six got put together with six other strangers, so there were twelve of us all together, and we all had the RIP access.

Now the thing I don't like about public attractions, especially something like this, is that it takes one dickhead to ruin everything. One skeptic who wants to be stupid, and poof, the experience is ka-put. Luckily, my group of twelve was solid!

Once it was time we left the lobby and walked outside around the building to the entrance, all with our phones off as per orders. We were told in no uncertain terms that being found with our phones on would get us kicked out.

Upon entering the museum, I was beyond excited! It’s dark. I don’t know where the windows were but they were useless. The ambiance was thrilling.

We had a tour guide explain the first room to us, but throughout the experience our tour guides would change depending on what exhibit we were in. I'd read somewhere that certain workers refused to go into certain places so I figured that's why there was such a change. They were all professional and knowledgeable, so it was fine.

Every exhibit had a small screen with a recording of Zak Bagans explaining what we were seeing, the lore and facts behind each exhibit, all the good stuff. And again, it's hot and hazy. So someone who isn't well-hydrated or sober may be more inclined to hysterics. I myself was well-hydrated and sober because I wanted to remember this experience, but if I ever go back to Vegas, I will do this tour again, and I will do it inebriated.

The first few exhibits were appropriately creepy and set the mood. But there is an exhibit at the beginning of the tour that is completely unsettling.

Without giving away spoilers on what exactly the room was about, I will say that it was damn near pitch black and we were all ushered to take a seat. It's one of the only times on the tour that we sat down. The video of Zak Bagans plays, explaining the exhibit and the history it’s based on. Then we hear real live audio from the experience and my God.

My heart broke in this exhibit. The pictures on the wall were horrifying. I got crazy goosebumps listening to the audio. The memory of this still haunts me in the best way. 10/10 this was my favorite room in the entire museum.

The tour continued on like I didn’t have the most chilling experience in that dark little church-esque room.

As we went through all the rooms, which there are a lot of, we got to spend an adequate amount of time inside each one. I recall that two rooms have the ghost speaker box thing that they use on Ghost Adventures that allows spirits to talk. I couldn't hear any words specifically, but the boxes were definitely making noise.

Some of the rooms held items with some very dark history, some were reportedly haunted, some were small and cramped, others a bit more spacious. The tour guides did not make jokes or make light of the situations. They were very professional.

Before entering each exhibit, the tour guides were clear about what to expect and that if anyone was uncomfortable, they were welcome to not participate.

In our group, some of the strangers opted out of some things, like the doll room. Our RIP access allowed us entry to the basement where it’s rumored that satanic rituals took place; my sister-in-law did not go down there and my best friend dipped out really quickly after entering. No one was made to feel lame for not participating.

Overall, it was a great experience for people who are into the creepy paranormal horrifying things in life. It was educational, because even if they aren’t haunted, there is truth to every exhibit.

As we neared the end, I had been waiting for something. But alas, nothing unexplained came up.

As we were entering the gift shop with our entire group of twelve intact, I turned to my personal group of friends and jokingly said, "C'mon guys, not one person fainted? We gotta step it up."

Which brings me back to a point I made earlier: the place is hot and hazy. Mix that with someone under the influence of anything, and if they're already stressed or on edge, I guarantee that is the cause of at least some of the reactions people have had.

Now I'm not saying people haven't had paranormal experiences in the museum, because I won't knock anyone's beliefs, and more power to them if they have! But I did wonder throughout the museum how much of it was from the person themselves instead of the actual exhibits or spirits.

Overall, I loved it! It was roughly two hours of haunting thrills, historical facts, and a wide variety of themes. There were some exhibits based off of older happenings, and some as recent as the 2000’s. The entire thing was so cool and so up my alley. It makes me want to watch Ghost Adventures again. And as mentioned above, if I can, I will return to the museum!

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A little bonus story:

Before the story, I’ll specify that in our group of six, the only person who doesn’t believe in this stuff is my husband. He and my sister-in-law are not big horror fans so I was pleasantly surprised when they wanted to come too. And I didn’t realize that my brother-in-law held similar beliefs to me; I thought he was skeptic all the way.

So we leave the museum in one piece with our matching shirts and lanyards. I’m jazzed as all Hell and we’re chatting about the exhibits and what we saw and though.

As we got settled into the uber to go to dinner, my brother-in-law asked us if we saw the person standing behind the door in the last room. Now, tour guides were flitting about throughout the time we were inside so I can't say for sure whether I did or didn't notice whoever he was talking about.

But aside from him, only my best friend noticed.

We go to dinner, roll our stuffed little selves back to the hotel, and went our separate ways. I slept wonderfully.

The next morning at breakfast, my brother-in-law says he had an experience in his hotel room.

They’re room was like two down from us. Theirs had a single bed, two armchairs and a small table in front of the window, and a bathroom. Our rooms faced the sphere, so even with the blinds shut, there’s still that outline of light from the window.

He was lying on his side in bed sleeping and woke up in the middle of the night for no real reason. In his half asleep state, he swears he saw the outline of a person sitting in one of the armchairs. Just a pitch black figure that he’s sure is facing him.

Apparently, in response to this intrusion, he said "fuck that" and rolled over.

Am I upset that he's the one who had an experience? I won't lie, yeah I am. Would I have been horrified if I had experienced that? Yeah, 100%. But it would have also been kind of cool!

I like to blame my lack of experience on the fact that us ladies all wore turquoise necklaces to ward off the evil. Superstitions and all that.