The Emily Morgan Hotel. The official hotel of the Alamo, San Antonio Texas, USA. Also haunted. :P
Yeah, yeah, long time no post. But this is worthy. Recently, I went on a trip down to Texas for some concerts (what else?) and I found myself in quite the ghostly situation. That’s right, I said ghostly.
I want to make it absolutely clear, that when I reserved the Emily Morgan Doubletree/Hilton hotel in San Antonio, Texas. I did so with no knowledge of its history. I chose the hotel for the location “Official hotel of the Alamo” and star rating. I didn’t look up reviews, because I didn’t feel it was necessary by the description and location. So I really didn’t know the history of the hotel, the claims of it being haunted or anything else I probably wouldn’t believe anyways that I would normally read online. But these things that happened to me are true. And it sure is odd.
First a little story about my first night at the hotel, then I will make a list of all the strange things that I either saw or experienced. You can say you don’t believe in ghosts all you like, and I’m doing the same thing, but in this case, having it happen to me changes things.
So, I arrived the first night, absolutely knackered. The weather was atrociously hot the night/morning I was supposed to leave (felt like 40C) so there wasn’t much sleep to be had. Then a 2 1/2 drive to the airport, then by the time I arrived in San Antonio, it was close to 10:00pm. Exhausted, tired, my goal was to get to my room and put my feet up and get some much needed sleep in an air conditioned room.
Check-in was super easy, name, credit card number, here’s your room key and a point to the elevator. For the record all of the staff I met at this hotel was SUPER nice. They were friendly, kind and oddly genuine. It was nice to be treated so nice. Anyways, I trudged up to my room on the 10th floor.
My first impression of the room was, “meh,” meaning, for the cost per night I was expecting something a little more luxurious. But this one was arranged differently and even though I was exhausted, I figured out that this was an old hotel, and that was part of it’s charm, I guess. Two double beds, bathroom, TV, air conditioning and it’s clean. I may have been tired, but the room would serve what I needed for my two night stay.
A few odd things happened, but only in hindsight did they make sense to the them of this post. I will include them in the list of the stuff that I experienced, or this post will be as long as the Emily Morgan hotel is high. The real meat part of this story is:
Remember, I knew nothing about this hotel being haunted, it was just another hotel to me.
Until…
Oh it must have been around 11:00pm (but midnight for my time zone) when I decided to get some sleep. I was exhausted, remember? I had trouble falling asleep, but I figured it was just travel stress, that usually takes a while to relax from. Soon enough I must have fallen asleep, but I kept on being woken up. Yes, woken up. Why you might ask? Because I thought I saw a ghost. Let that sink in a moment. I wasn’t pre-dispositioned to knowing there were supposed to be ghosts, I was just sleeping minding my own business and I was awoken 4 times, by what I thought were ghosts.
It was really quite strange what your sleepy mind will do. So being an adult (well sometimes) and knowing if anyone can freak me out the best, it’s usually me. I remember very clearly seeing a figure of a man with a hat (not a sombrero but round and less wide, I know nothing about hats, but that’s what I saw), he was tall and even though the room was dark, I could see his silhouette standing there in between the two beds. I remember waking up startled like someone woke me up and in my sleepy head (or maybe I vocalized it) I said, “Was that a ghost?” I literally asked myself if I just saw a ghost, in a hotel that is supposedly haunted, that I had no idea about.
This figured visited me three times that night, that I can recall waking up to. And each time I convinced myself that I must be dreaming or just tried. You know being an adult trying to rationalize stuff. To note, I had left the TV on, but by the last visit, I decided to turn it off, and that’s when I stopped getting these ghostly visits.
There was one more figure besides the man cloaked black with the hat. He was quite tall, but I could only see his silhouette and not his face. The other figure that I saw was female, she was short, could have been a child even. She had a poofy dress (it reminded me of those dresses from Mexico for celebrations) and she seemed… Shy? Yeah, okay I said it shy.
Anyways, I ended up getting a few hours sleep but woke up real early, remembering these weird very vivid things, but not really thinking much of it. I mean, come on. COME ON! So I took a shower, got dressed and started to check things out to do in the area, while I awaited my friend to show up around 1:00pm. That’s when a random search said something about ghosts at the Emily Morgan hotel.
Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. I think I talked to my iPad and said, “No shit Sherlock” or something similar. Talk about a “click” that clicked. So I did more searches and come to find out it is one of the most haunted hotels in America, if not the world (these lists vary quite a bit).
If I had known about this hotel, I could have convinced myself that it was all just my subconscious playing tricks on me. But not knowing? Yup, there is only one thing to believe, that I really did see a ghost, or ghosts. Who knows what else I saw in my half asleep mind trying to convince myself I didn’t actually see a ghost?
Here is a list of things that happened at the hotel they happened:
First night:
1. Upon arriving in the room, I found it very strange that the alarm clock was 3 hours ahead. I figured that would be a large oversight for such a hotel. And after asking the staff, apparently that is something on the cleaning staff check list to make sure it’s the right time.
2. The TV was on, which is pretty common. It was on the hotel channel showing all of those spa scenes and just how relaxing this hotel was, etc. Those channels annoy me, so I grabbed the remote control to change it to a news station to catch up on the day. But the remote wouldn’t work. I’m like, “Great!” So I fiddle with changing the channels manually (not really all that easy, these new TVs.) and put it on the news channel. Then I figured to open the remote control and switch the batteries around in order to try to get it to work.
Hey I was tired, I couldn’t get the battery cover open as much as I tried, and apparently there is a tiny little screw there that prevented me from attempting anymore. So after swearing some more, I decided to try to the remote again. It worked! Hallelujah! So I grabbed my iPad and went to sit down on the one chair provided in the room with an ottoman to put my feet up. Turns out the news was all about the US President and I was NOT in the mood for his shenanigans or his face, so I grab the remote control and it stopped working again. Forcing me to get up and change the channels manually again.
3. During the night I got 4 visits that I can remember, three of the same man in a hat and one child. All waking me up for whatever reasons ghosts do those things.
First morning:
After I was showered and dressed for the day, I was just relaxing, pondering what I read about the hotel being haunted. When there was a knock on the door. It was cleaning staff time, but I had put my do not disturb sign on the door knob, so I figured it had fallen off. Oddly enough, the housekeeper didn’t say, “Housekeeping” as they normally would. So I looked out the peep hole, expecting to see the cleaning cart and a maid, but there was nobody there. My room was in the corner, with three other room doors very close by. There was nobody in the halls, no noise coming from the rooms next to mine. All was quiet. Who the hell knocked on my door?
Second night:
1. Arrived in the room, immediately got goosebumps that lasted a really long time, felt something swoosh by.
2. During the night, felt a thump on my bed, being asleep I thought it was my cat, when my asleep brain met with my awake brain, it realized that I was not in my own bed. Looked at where the thump was, the black figure was sitting on my bed, hat and all. I vaguely remember asking him his name, he said Timothy.
Second morning:
Went to eat breakfast, my friend returned to the room by herself for a shower. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom in my room, I asked the front desk where their public restroom was, which happened to be downstairs. Went downstairs, found the restroom, there were 4 or so stalls, no one in there, I sat down to do the business needed to be done, listening to some really awful poptastic music that was annoying the hell out of me. It abruptly changes and on repeat a male voice says:
“They sent me here. They sent me here. They sent me here.”
It continued until I washed my hands and it changed again to the poptastic crap as soon as I opened the door.
_________
In conclusion:
I’m the first one to be “that girl” who can find reasons for pretty much everything, even if it’s blaming the subconscious. But in the two nights that I stayed at the Emily Morgan hotel, I don’t have the answers I normally would. So I’ll just confirm it, there are ghosts in that hotel. Apparitions, ghosts, strange things. But I never felt as if I was in danger. So there is that. :P
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