A couple who visited one of Disney World’s water parks for what was supposed to be a joyous 30th birthday celebration have filed a lawsuit, alleging the trip was ruined by an extremely painful wedgie.
During a 2019 visit to the Typhoon Lagoon at Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, Emma McGuinness says she, her daughter, and her mom took a ride on the Humunga Kowabunga, a 200-foot waterslide in which riders plummet down five stories in the dark before shooting out into a pool of water.
“At the top of The Slide, riders are instructed to cross their legs at the ankles. 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,” the suit, filed by McGuinness and her husband, Edward, says.
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Nor are riders informed that the force of the water in the pool can “push loose garments into a person’s anatomy—an event known as a ‘wedgie,’” the suit continues. “Because of a woman’s anatomy, the risk of a painful ‘wedgie’ is more common and more serious than it is for a man.”
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened, the suit says, when McGuinness became briefly airborne toward the end of the slide and suffered such a hard landing in the pool that she required hospitalization for serious injuries.
She has been left with permanent injuries, the suit says, including damage to her internal organs, and has suffered “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 couple, who are asking for at least $50,000 in damages, argue that the slide is “unsafe and unreasonably dangerous” and that Disney was negligent because it didn’t advise riders of the potential risks or the need to wear garments that would prevent wedgies.
Walt Disney World did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
