Each January, the Crescent Hotel closes its doors to casual tourism and opens them to something far more intimate: an overnight, lights‑down paranormal lockdown inside one of America’s most famously haunted hotels. Investigators, skeptics, and thrill‑seekers gather after dark as the building shifts into its winter stillness—hallways empty, floors quiet, and every creak or cold draft suddenly meaningful. Participants are granted rare access to the hotel’s most active hotspots, from the shadow‑laden corners of the morgue to the notoriously restless guest rooms, documenting whatever the night is willing to reveal. What follows is a raw, unfiltered encounter with the Crescent’s lingering history, experienced in the kind of silence where every sound feels amplified and every moment feels charged.
As the night settles and the investigation shifts from structured walkthroughs to personal encounters, every participant is left to face the Crescent’s lingering energy in their own way. What follows isn’t a scripted tour or a curated story—it’s the part of the lockdown where the building chooses what to reveal, and each person must interpret those moments for themselves. This is where my experience begins.
I have done the paranormal lockdown two times. My first time was in 2024, and the second time was in 2026. This is my story about what it was like each of those times for me. Before I get started, I will say the experience you have is largely up to you. You’ll see that mine vary a bit between the two.
The first year I went, I had no idea what to expect as I had never been on any type of event like this before. This is how it starts and this is the same for both years I have done this. When you buy your ticket for the lockdown, it also includes a room booking at the Basin Park Hotel. This is where you actually start the event. Around 7:30pm they start shuttling attendees via a minivan to the Cresent Hotel. When you arrive, the place is nearly pitch black and feels like you are arriving during a power outage.
The first year I did this we all gathered in a large room and had a welcome session from the Team. It included hotel staff, mainly the ones that do the ghost tours and hunts, as well as about 13 social media influencers. Some were credible names that included people with shows on the Discovery channel. We were informed of the rules, which was basically, if you leave, you can’t come back.
My first year was rough. I had no idea what it was going to be like. I went with the primary goal to make a documentary style video of the experience and the people participating. With that in mind, I brought way too much stuff. Multiple cameras, chargers, batteries, external hard drives and even a laptop to offload full media cards on. I was miserable carrying all this around all night.
Once we were done with the intro, you basically are on your own to go do what you want. I took off solo and wanted to get some video of Theodoras room (419) and by the time I got there and setup, a group had started their investigation. I watched for a while and then moved on.
Eventually, I met up with my mom, AKA Carrie McCasket. She had teamed up with a couple of younger ladies that were part of the invited influencer guests. Actually, they were drawn to the activity that seemed to be around anywhere my mom went.
The night got interesting at this point. I continued to record the best I could but also took some time to participate in some investigative tasks. I tried doing the Estes Method in the cooler of the morgue. There was a vast difference in what I could hear vs. the experienced pros.
I wasn’t alone. There was a couple from Chicago that joined our group. The guy was much like me, not really a non believer, but also maybe a bit skeptic. He had the same experience as me on the Estes Method.
Over the course of the night, we went to all the popular spots. In Michaels room (218) we watched a dresser drawer open by itself. Right in front of 13 people, we all saw the same thing. I actually even recorded in on video!
The Ballroom, the honeymoon suites, the hallway where Breckie likes to play. We spent time at them all, navigating only by flashlights and cell phones. The event goes until 3am at which time you take the minivan shuttle back to the Basin Park Hotel and sleep if you can.
This last year the lockdown experience was still very similar to the first time. I knew not to bring more than what I would be comfortable with carrying for 7 hours. This last year had fewer influencers but still same big ones. Steve and Dylan from the Haunted Knights YouTube channel were one of the stand outs.
Oddly, the first year I went there was a lot of excitement from the event staff around the influencer’s presence however this year, they didn’t even mention or introduce the Influencers in the welcome session. The influencers are key in my opinion to the event being a success. The attendees will naturally at some point join them during the investigation, if not all night. Most of the attendees were just normal people from all walks of life with no paranormal investigation experience so they were there mainly to experience from people that were pros.
The Cresent just has a charm and feeling when you are there that is like no other. Since its in January right after Christmas, the decorations are still up and it makes for a really beautiful night. Turn out all the lights and roam every floor in the dark for a truly haunting experience!