Historic Aircraft Carrier Turns Into a Haunted House With More Than 80 Rooms to Explore

Visitors to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas, can do more than tour a World War II ship this month. On Friday and Saturday nights, they’re being invited below deck to explore a haunted house with more than 80 compartments.

The attraction is called Haunting on the Blue Ghost, and it’s spread across two of the aircraft carrier’s decks. According to the USS Lexington Museum, some of the rooms included in the tour have never been open to the public before.

Getting from one room to another means climbing steep ladders and going through narrow hallways and hatchways. There are also live actors scattered throughout the haunted house, waiting to scare people as they make their way through.

The haunted house opened October 2 and is back for two more weekends before Halloween. It’s being put on by Castle of Terror Productions, a company that started out with much smaller Halloween scares in Corpus Christi.

The Haunted House Started With a Mannequin

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Before he was putting on haunted attractions aboard an aircraft carrier, Abie Arrisola spent eight years scaring trick-or-treaters outside his house. He would set up a mannequin and a speaker near his front door so he could talk to kids as they approached.

Eventually, he added a cot with a person hiding underneath a sheet. According to a history shared in the attraction’s listing, the setup continued growing until Arrisola had commercial scaffolding around a house along a busy road near Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Castle of Terror Productions was established in 2012 and now works with the USS Lexington Museum on the Halloween event. The ship’s original ladders, dark corridors and heavy hatchways are all part of the experience.

Why the USS Lexington Is Called the Blue Ghost

The Lexington actually got its nickname during World War II. The ship was commissioned in 1943 and spent 21 months fighting in the Pacific, but Japanese reports repeatedly claimed it had been sunk.

According to the museum’s history of the aircraft carrier, the Japanese reported sinking it at least four times. Each time, the Lexington kept returning to battle, eventually earning the nickname “The Blue Ghost.”

The ship was originally supposed to be called the USS Cabot, but it was renamed after an earlier USS Lexington sank during the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. After the war, the Lexington continued serving in the Navy and eventually became a training carrier in Pensacola, Florida. It was decommissioned in 1991 and opened as a museum in Corpus Christi in October 1992.

How Much It Costs to Visit the Haunted Aircraft Carrier

There are four nights left for Haunting on the Blue Ghost this year: October 23, 24, 30 and 31. The haunted house opens at 7 p.m. and runs until 10:30 p.m. on each of those nights.

Tickets cost $30, or $45 for VIP admission that lets visitors skip the line. They can be purchased through the museum’s haunted house page or at its admission booths on the night of the event.

The museum recommends the attraction for ages 8 and older, and visitors need to be comfortable climbing ladders and walking through tight spaces. It also warns against attending if you have claustrophobia or experience panic attacks.

Castle of Terror Productions is donating $1 from every ticket sold to local charities. All ticket sales are final, with no refunds.