Museum Of Shadows — Attraction in Omaha

Our second trip to the MoS was significantly different than our first a year ago, so I'll review them both.

First trip was in April '22. The mood and overall vibe of the place had us hooked. If you watch any of the many paranormal TV shows, you'll recognize a lot of the equipment in use, such as the REM pod, spirit boxes, and K2 meters.

Upon entry, we rented a spirit box and K2 meter and joined our quiet and seemingly nervous crowd of twenty or so for a guided ghost tour. For an hour, the owners walk you around the upper and lower levels, telling stories of the various artifacts and how they came to be in possession of them.

After the guided tour, they let you loose to freely walk wherever you wish. As others have noted, you're asked not to touch things, which I'm entirely fine with. For one, none of these things are mine, two: I was raised with manners to know that you look with your eyes, not your hands, and three: I'm not interested in finding out whether these objects truly have the ability to haunt or attach to you causing you trouble after you leave.

Our first tour in '22 was respectful, quiet, and attentive which significantly increased the creep factor. We could each hear the various spirit boxes as they picked up various radio signals and added communication to the tour increasing our anxiety that there really were spirits among us.

The doll in the entryway, Ayda, was a favorite last year. Reading her tragic story pulled us in, and the REM Pod sitting above her case seemed to interact well with us and kept us talking with her/getting responses.

Basement "Claire" was another favorite. Keeping her in seclusion among some VERY scary objects added to the overall allure. And allowing us to walk freely on our own after the guided tour led to some incredibly scary moments and untraceable noises.

All of the fear and unexplainable things we heard and experienced last year confirmed that we wanted to return which we finally did last night.

What a different experience.

I realize this is first and foremost a business that needs revenue to continue operating. I also acknowledge that, as a business, the team can't be picky about who they choose to allow entry. Unsavory tour attendees can't be helped so, although that did impact our visit, that's not what this review is based off of.

My thoughts are simply these, an age restriction should be considered at least for the latest tour time. With kids running around, interrupting the tour, asking questions, being rambunctious, it cuts the tension and undercuts the whole vibe. What should've been a anxiety inducing tour through a quiet creepy museum felt and smelled more like a field trip to the zoo. That is not a comment on the establishment itself. The museum is clean in both sight and smell. I think attention is paid to ensure a good experience to the best of the owners ability, and this was likely just bad timing.

Additionally, the lower level is off limits until everyone can descend the stairs as a group, allowing the tour to hear any footsteps overhead and validate that no one is on the upper floor. Unfortunately, we weren't able to hear anything that was potentially occurring upstairs, or even in an adjacent area because of the noise and questions from the children in our tour group.

And, with so many "sit challenges" booked for the night, our time downstairs was cut short to ensure enough time was reserved to observe these challenges. This was also disappointing as you pay for two hours of time, 60 minutes guided and 60 minutes to freely roam, but we really only got a fraction of that free time due to these challenges. We were able to go back upstairs during the challenges, but we'd already spent so much time up there prior to the tour that it wasn't much consolation. And the REM Pod we so enjoyed interacting with on Ayda's case was noticeably missing on this trip.

1. kids should not be allowed
2. sit challenges should be limited
3. emphasize quiet for numerous reasons

5 ☆s last year....

After visiting this place with my brother I had to share my experience. Both my brother and I are believers in the paranormal but this place just didn’t do it for us. We were left highly disappointed and questioned the authenticity of many of the items.

First the Ayda doll has very little information surrounding her. The notes claim she is 200 years old (which her body and clothing are definitely not 200 years old). Only after doing a bunch of digging on the internet did I find that only her head is original the rest of her body is of modern origin. There is no other history on the doll yet they claim that in her human life she was abused by men??? No explanation on how they came to any conclusion on who they think the spirit is that is attached to her. All they show is a picture of a baby but then somewhere else on line they claim it’s a 6 year old girl. I question the story behind the doll.

Another artifact that I highly question is the 1920s wedding dress. It looks like a cheap dress from China. The craftsmanship, material, and age look nothing like it’s from the 1920s. It looks brand new and modern stitching but cheaply made. Lace from the 1920s would show some discoloration. The entire dress was bleach white. I just didn’t buy the story behind the dress.

I went into the museum creeped out and feeling sick and negative energy. The moment I questioned the authenticity of the items all of the bad vibes I felt immediately disappeared and the museum felt like a joke afterwards. I think a lot of the creepiness comes from the atmosphere that the owners try to create and our minds playing tricks. I have been to actual haunted houses and have captured ghosts on film. I have felt spirits watching me before. I didn’t experience any of that at this museum.

The wall of ouija boards actually made me laugh. Half of them look like they were made in someone’s basement in the 90s yet had a sign that said “vintage”. There weren’t any really unique boards except one. It was an all black “dark” board. I was really hoping to see some antique ornate carved wood boards like my grandmother used to have.

All in all it was a cool experience but a lot of the stories behind the items were vague or questionable. I didn’t really get any negative energy or creep factor from any one item. It all actually felt kind of cheesy and fake. I just couldn’t take most of it seriously.

Lastly it says online it’s $15. It’s not. It’s $20 and totally not worth it. Way better things to do in Omaha...

I REALLY wanted to love this place, as I LOVE all things paranormal, but sadly I was quite disappointed with this place, purely because of the lack of care and attention to detail. But because of how badly really wanted to love this place, I’m going to leave a super long review with points I really think could benefit you guys if you’re open to it, and really help make this place flourish!

So Each room we went into was just a big empty room, with a million cluttered artifacts lining the perimeter of each room, complete with the same laminated piece of paper typed up on word, accompanying literally every single item. So if someone wanted to read every single piece of paper in here, I have no doubts it would take AT LEAST 34 hours…

And it’s unfortunate bc they really did have a ton of awesome items with super interesting stories attached, but everytime you walk a couple more feet around the perimeter, you’re again overwhelmed with the sheer amount of clutter/things to read.

So I’d really recommend to the staff to try and change the layout of this place. Ideally the rooms would be smaller, so that you aren’t overwhelmed by a big empty room. Even just some kind of cheap room dividers that simulate a divided up room would work.

And the 2nd biggest recommendation I have would be changing up how you present information. At the very least that means just changing the sizes of the captions you have next to items, like making some of the captions in much bigger frames, and maybe keeping some small ones, there just needs to be more of a variety to keep the scene in front of your more interesting. And maybe don’t have soo many captions that were excessively long, like you could sum up the item in just a couple sentences, and then save the entire detailed story about the item just for guided tours or something.

Lastly- WHY IN THE WORLD DO YOU NOT LET PEOPLE USE THEIR PHONES? Don’t you understand every time someone would take a pic of something in your museum and then post it on social media, that’s LITERALLY FREE ADVERTISING for you! Trust me, you’re only hurting yourself by not letting ppl share pics of...