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Credit: DisneyA couple is suing Walt Disney World Resort for $50,000 over an incident in 2019 when one person received a “painful wedgie” that sent them to the hospital.
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For many people, Walt Disney World Resort is the ultimate Disney Park to visit. Not only is it home to the Magic Kingdom, but there’s also EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. It’s a theme park enthusiast’s paradise, home to iconic rides like Space Mountain, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and Expedition Everest.
That said, people seem to forget that this is not just a gigantic amusement park but a Disney Resort. Guests can find excellent shopping and dining opportunities at Disney Springs and Disney Boardwalk. Then there’s the incredible water parks: Disney’s Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. And it’s the latter water park that we’ll be focusing on today.
Typhoon Lagoon at Walt Disney World Resort
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While Blizzard Beach may be the newest Disney water park, Typhoon Lagoon is by far the best. Yes, Blizzard Beach has more options for kids, but Typhoon Lagoon Water Park offers much more for adults to enjoy.
First of all, the theming is much more interesting. The idea of being in an abandoned town-turned-water park is exciting, especially when climbing Mount Mayday and seeing the boat sitting on top of the mountain. And this isn’t even mentioning the food and drinks you get at Hammer Head Fred’s and Typhoon Tilly’s.
Related: Man Hospitalized, Nearly Dies Following Disney World Water Park Accident
Also, the attractions are much more exciting overall. There’s Keelhaul Falls, Crush’ n’ Gusher, Miss Adventure Falls, and, of course, Humunga Kowabunga. But the biggest highlight is the Surf Pool. Not only does it function as a wave pool, but you can also take surf lessons there to prepare yourself for less controlled waves in the future. That’s a water park rarity.
Needless to say, Typhoon Lagoon is the perfect water park destination for anyone staying at Walt Disney World Resort. However, this wasn’t the case for one woman who faced massive medical bills due to an incident on the Humunga Kowabunga water slide.
Couple Wants $50,000 for a Hospitalizing Wedgie
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In 2019, a woman, Emma McGuinness, was enjoying a birthday trip to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park with her family. During their trip, she decided to go down the Humunga Kowabunga, a near-vertical five-story drop water slide in complete darkness that doesn’t use a raft or inner tube.
When she hit the standing water at the end, the force of the slide caused a “painful wedgie and injury” to the woman’s private area when she went airborne into the pool of water at the end. McGuinness wound up being hospitalized for her injuries.
Now, four years later, Emma McGuinness and her husband, Edward, are suing the Walt Disney Company for at least $50,000 in damages, citing “scarring, mental anguish, loss of the capacity of enjoyment of life, expensive hospitalization and medical care, and loss of earnings, all of which injuries are either permanent or continuing in nature.”
The McGuinness family claims that Disney was negligent in the incident. “At the top of The Slide, riders are instructed to cross their legs at the ankles,” the suit says. “Riders are not told why their ankles need to be crossed, the importance of doing so, or the risks of injury if one’s ankles become uncrossed.”
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The suit also claims that Humunga Kowabunga is “unsafe and unreasonably dangerous” since riders aren’t informed of the potential risks of going down the slide, especially if they have female organs. “Because of a woman’s anatomy, the risk of a painful ‘wedgie’ is more common and more serious than it is for a man,” the suit reads. Emma McGuinness has also stated that she would never have gone down the slide if she had been warned of this. Disney hasn’t commented.
This may seem like an easy lawsuit to write off by saying, “You’re going down a water slide, of course, you’re going to get a wedgie,” but we have to be careful in doing that. The same thing happened with the McDonald’s spilled coffee lawsuit, and it turned out that McDonald’s was completely negligent in that situation. The best thing to do is give the lawsuit time to release the case details.
Do you think Disney should have done more to warn people about the slide? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!