Disclosure: This post was made in partnership with US Ghost Adventures and orlandohaunts.com and includes affiliate links. The stories shared are part of a guided ghost tour experience and reflect local legends and lore. Paranormal activity and historical details are not guaranteed.
Over Christmas week, Shane and I traveled to Orlando, Florida to visit my dad’s side of the family. Every other year, my grandmother books a penthouse suite at Bonnet Creek so we can all spend the holidays together in one place. Family comes in from all over the world for a full week of celebrating and this year was no exception.
We traveled in from Rochester, NY, my parents came up from their winter home in Cape Coral, FL, my grandparents from Clearwater, FL, my aunt and uncle from Oklahoma, cousins from Asheville, Pittsburgh, and various parts of Virginia, plus my cousin from Australia with her mom (my aunt from California). It was a big group, and somehow, we all managed to be under one roof for the holidays.
Just before our trip, Shane and I were approached by US Ghost Adventures about taking one of their ghost tours. Orlando immediately felt like the perfect place to do it. (We wanted to do it in Buffalo close to home, but SURPRISE – snow came early, so we decided to do this tour somewhere warm).
I’ve been visiting Orlando for most of my life. Growing up, we were here almost every other year, sometimes even more. But despite all those trips, I had never once been to downtown Orlando. It honestly never even crossed my mind. Like so many people, I always associated Orlando with theme parks and nothing else.
Downtown Orlando completely surprised me.
Cobblestone streets, historic buildings, Christmas lights, and a lively bar and nightlife scene, it reminded me so much of my days living in Minneapolis. There was even a stretch of the tour where I swear I felt like I was back on Nicollet Avenue. Downtown Orlando is beautiful, layered, and full of UFO & Ghost stories hiding in plain sight.
What I didn’t realize until this tour is that downtown Orlando used to be the destination, long before Disney existed. People once traveled from all over to experience the city itself. When the theme parks came, everything shifted. Businesses downtown struggled. Some buildings were neglected. Certain areas fell quiet. It’s not something you really think about unless you’re walking those streets at night, hearing the history firsthand.
Disney is a magical place, but it has undeniably changed the city around it.
We arrived exactly at 8:00 PM for our tour at the corner of Magnolia & Central, directly across from the Public Library and in front of the Orange County Regional History Center. Traffic on I-4 was absolutely insane (shocking, I know), otherwise we would’ve arrived a bit earlier.
Shane and I rode in with my mom and dad, while cousins, aunts, and uncles drove separately and met us there. Upon checking in, our guide Roger mentioned this was the biggest group he’d ever had.
You’re welcome.
That was all us.
The Statskeys were in town.
A few minutes after 8, we began our stroll through downtown Orlando. We heard a lot of stories along our walk, but here are a few of our favorite stories that stuck out to us that we wanted to share with you without giving too much away!
Our first stop of the night was The Angebilt Hotel. Originally built with 13 floors, one of them underground. There’s a long-standing story tied to a hurricane that caused catastrophic flooding. Guests who took shelter in the ballroom waited out the storm, only for the upper floors to flood, walls to collapse, and people to be swept away. Some say no bodies were ever found, fueling theories that they were pulled into another dimension.
Eventually, a roof was built over what remained of the structure, making it now only 11 floors. Locals sometimes refer to it as Orlando’s true Tower of Terror.
Beneath downtown Orlando lies a network of tunnels, and one is said to run from the Angebilt Hotel to the building across the street, the Beacham Theater.
The Beacham was once the county jail, overseen by a sheriff known for his cruelty and racism. Executions were carried out publicly, by hanging, lynching, and even quartering. (If you don’t know what quartering is… it’s exactly as horrific as it sounds.)
Crowds would gather to watch these executions, which is one of the eerie reasons downtown Orlando earned the nickname “the old Disney World” of its time.
Behind the jail was a graveyard. When the city expanded, the headstones were moved, but the bodies were not. So you can imagine why this section of Orlando has so much ghostly activity. Inside the theater today, people report hearing an old organ playing on its own, and nooses have reportedly been found hidden within the walls from its jailhouse days.
One of the next stops that stood out to me was the Old Orlando Railroad Depot, also known as Church Street Station. There’s something fascinating about standing in front of a neglected train depot and realizing how much life once passed through it.
Across from the depot stood a hotel that also operated as a brothel. Many women became pregnant there, but were not allowed to keep their babies. According to the stories, the infants were placed in boxes and discarded.
The building that was part of the Brothel later became a restaurant called Ceviche, reportedly owned by members of NSYNC. During their time there, they allegedly brought in an exorcist after hearing what sounded like screaming babies coming from the walls.
Orlando is also said to sit on powerful ley lines, energy pathways believed to attract unexplained activity.
We learned about Edward Seymour, the owner of the Kress Building, who lived in an apartment inside the structure. When people wouldn’t hear from him for days, concerns grew. Eventually, writings were found covering the floors and walls, many detailing UFO encounters and abductions. Seymour claimed he had been taken and returned, documenting his experiences obsessively.
There have been over 8,000 UFO sightings in the Orlando area in the last 20 years.
I had no idea.
Is it the constant glow of theme park lights reflecting into the sky? Or is something else being drawn to the energy of the city? With millions of people, emotions, excitement, and electricity pulsing through Orlando every day, it makes you wonder.
One story that really stuck with me involved the courthouse where Ted Bundy was tried for the murder of a Florida girl. According to the tour, the ghost of his final victim appears in nearly every photograph taken of the building. Iron has reportedly been installed throughout parts of the courthouse to contain her presence to one area.
Whether you believe it or not, standing there at night definitely gives you pause.
The first hour of the tour included many additional stops with equally unsettling stories. When booking, you have the option to add an extended version, which we did, adding about 30 extra minutes.
We also rented an EMF Activity Detector, which was surprisingly fun to use. The strongest activity we noticed occurred while crossing the street near where the underground tunnels are believed to run. I like to think it also lights up in places where someone once died, that energy never really leaving.
EMF detectors measure unusual energy fluctuations, which may indicate something unexplained, not necessarily ghosts, but something… different.
(And yes—if you’re wondering—there is a public restroom available at Lake Eola Park at the end of the extended tour. This was very important to my mom while on the tour.)
We love ghost tours not because we’re chasing scares, but because they’re one of the best ways to experience the history of a city. If that resonates with you, this tour is absolutely worth doing.
See Also: Ghost Stories of Seabreeze
US Ghost Adventures operates in nearly every major city across the U.S., with tours running year-round. Their stories are refined through years of guest experiences, guide research, and firsthand accounts of unexplained encounters. They’re not about costumes or jump scares; they’re about storytelling, history, and making sense of places where something still lingers.
Book Your Own Ghost Adventure
If you’re heading to Orlando or another major city in the US and want to experience a completely different side of the city, I highly recommend US Ghost Adventures.
👉 Book here:
https://usghostadventures.com?ref=zdy2ywy
🎟 Use code: DATES10 for 10% off your Orlando tour
(Discount code is valid for Orlando, FL only.)
If you go, let us know what you experience. Some cities never tell you their stories unless you’re willing to walk them at night.
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