When I went looking for things to do in Charleston I came across the USS Yorktown. We have toured a few ships and I thought this would be fun. Husband saw they had a ghost tour and picked this as his “thing to do” for the trip. (Usually we each pick a place, tour, or restaurant that we are doing. This way everyone is happy.)
The ghost tour is offered nightly Sunday to Thursday at 8pm and Friday / Saturday at 9:30pm. We had to do Friday night as it was the only night that worked for us. I would recommend Sunday through Thursday if you can. The cost is $25, you pay in advance on the website. And the tour is for ages 12 and up because #1 you are on the ship and #2 it can be scary!
To be fair a good deal of our experience was beyond the tour guides control. You cannot control other people but it was frustrating and not a great start! You are asked to arrive by 9:15. We were a little early and there at 9:10. There are bathrooms and an area with picnic table to wait for the tour to start. By 9:30 the rest of our tour group had not arrived. But the 9:45 tour group had all their people and set off into the ship. While Husband and I waited. Tour guide called the missing people and had no response. We waited until 9:45 when they finally showed up. A drunken bunch of college guys in town for a bachelor party. Yayyy! It sucked, this is not how I wanted to take a ghost tour with a bunch of loud obnoxious young drunks. After putting up with them for ten minutes I was considering just bailing on our tour and asking for a refund. We had not even boarded the ship yet.
The tour guide had some reservations if the guys could even make it onto the ship, let alone climb ladders or take a tour. So he bumped us to the 9:45 group that had already begun the tour. We hustled to meet them on the ship with their guide. We had missed the opening 10 -15 minutes of the tour and the background video.
Things improved greatly from there and we had a good tour of the ship. We heard about the unfortunate accidents that befell some of the crew members. And about others ghostly encounters recently aboard the ship. We also had an EMF detector that went off in a hallway once. It was fun and we did have a good time.
The ship was featured on the show Ghost Hunters. http://www.syfy.com/ghosthunters/episodes/season/8/episode/810/haunted_by_heroes
You will be climbing ladders, ducking through doorways and obviously are in a ship. So dress accordingly and watch your head. Our tour lasted almost two hours and while we didn’t see any ghosts it was interesting. The drunk group was long gone by the time we left the ship so who knows how much they really saw.
Please, if you are doing a tour be on time! Almost every tour we took on this vacation we had people who were late. It was one of the more frustrating aspects of this trip.
stretchingittotravel 
I cannot recall which writer (Heinlein perhaps) who once said “Hell is other people…”
But I am glad you salvaged the evening, and thanks for posting these interesting photos!
I LOVE the quote! That is awesome and so true!!!!!
I think it was Sartre who said that. Anyway, I went with the family to charleston a couple years ago. We didn’t get to see the Yorktown, though I would have liked to. Glad you didn’t have to tour with the drunk college guys.
Sounds fun, once you got into the right tour group. We love touring the Midway, which is docked here in San Diego. We spend hours following all the hallways and climbing ladders. Glad you enjoyed your tour!
Midway sounds fun. I will have to keep that in mind.
Oh how fun! Except for the late people. I visited Yorktown many years ago with a school field trip. We didn’t do the ghost tour, but did the day tour to see the ships.
Thanks for stopping by!
I’m with you for wanting people to be on time. I also think it’s incumbent on the guides and to go ahead with the people that are there. Waiting 30 minutes for a bunch of drunks in the evening seems excessive but at least the tour sounds interesting.
Ah, too bad about the drunks but I’m glad you got on to the right group, even though you missed the first part of the tour.
Thanks for stopping by!
I can’t believe they waited for them. I thought that if you were late you would get left. Hubby and I always arrive on time. Too bad we weren’t tour mates. lol! We saw this when we were in Charleston, but didn’t have time to do it. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
I would have voted for leave them behind. LOL! Thanks for stopping by.
I am happy to hear that an iffy start to your tour did not sour the full experience! I commended the tour guide the next day for having the awareness to move you to the other tour. We try to be flexible when time allows although there is a fine line between being accommodating and being rude to those waiting…and the line is not always obvious.
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the stories and the tour of the ship. It’s a unique tour and we are proud to be able to offer it.
Happy travels!
Craig
Yorktown Ghost Tours