Kalahari Water Resort Kalahari Water Resort Doesn't Care if You Get Hurt on Their Property Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

In August 2009 I visited Kalahari Water Resort in the Wisconsin Dells with my husband and three children.  We arrived at 2:00 and had to wait in a HUGE line just to find out they didn't have our room available yet.  We were okay with that, since we were aware the official check-in time is 4:00; however, this is the first hotel we've ever visited that really kept to such a late check-in time.  Regardless, we found our bathing suits and proceeded to visit the water park.

The first slide I went on was "The Wild Wildebeest", which is part of their outdoor waterpark.  I got on a double raft with my 6-year old son.  We both were sitting and holding on properly, however, we rounded the first curve of this extremely rough and pitch-dark slide and I went slamming into the side of the slide and broke my collarbone.  My 6 year old's head slammed into the side of the slide, but fortunately, he was okay.

When I got off the slide I didn't realize how badly I was hurt and thought I'd be okay if I sat down for a minute.  I soon realized it was pretty bad and told my older son to get the lifeguard.  The lifeguard called the on-site EMT who diagnosed it as a dislocated shoulder (wrong!!) and had the shuttle driver take me to a local emergency room.  When I was done at the emergency room, we called the shuttle driver and he brought us back to the hotel.

Since it was only the first day of our vacation, and I didn't want my children's vacation ruined, we decided to stay.  Not a single person from the hotel checked back to see if I was okay.  After a couple of days, my husband went into the manager's office to let her know how disappointed we were that no one cared enough to check in on me.  She told my husband that she wasn't even made aware of the accident, but she gave my husband their insurance information and made it sound like they would at least cover my medical bills.

When I got home I contacted their insurance company to find out how to file my claim.  The incredibly rude woman from the insurance company informed me that Kalahari only carries negligence insurance and since I probably can't prove any negligence, they will not be paying my medical bills.  She asked me several questions and recorded our conversation.  After she stopped recording, she continued to question me and kept insisting that I must be lying about holding on to the raft or else I would have ridden the slide and not been thrown off the raft.  Nothing I said would convince her otherwise.

The next day my husband spoke with someone at the Kalahari corporate office who informed him that the Kalahari's EMT wrote in her report that I said I was not holding on.  This is a complete lie and I can only assume that Kalahari trains their EMT's to put something in the report that makes any accident look like the guest was at fault.  I sent the corporate office an e-mail, explaining my side of the story and expressing my disgust that they are not willing to, at the very least, cover my medical expenses.  The only thing the Kalahari corporate office did in response is to forward my e-mail back to the same rude woman at the insurance company.

When I came home and told my friends the story, just about everyone asked me if they comped my trip.  Well, I would not expect them to comp my entire five day trip, but they didn't even so much as offer us a free meal to make up for my pain and suffering. 

To sum it up, I suffered weeks of pain and I am incurring thousands of dollars in medical bills and nobody at the Kalahari gives a d**n!