Behold the Insta-wiz — patent pending.
Ardmore, Pa., resident Vin DiDonna, 25, plans to party in the Preakness infield today for the first time, but friends warned him about the lengthy lines and questionable conditions of the provided portable toilets.
A little brainstorming and a trip to the hardware store later, he had an answer: A shower curtain attached to three hula hoops, paired with a bucket of scented kitty litter and, of course, an attached toilet paper dispenser. A personal, collapsible bathroom, or as DiDonna promotes it, “urinary solutions for the active tailgater.”
“Seriously, who wants to disappear for an hour trying to find a Port-A-Potty, then waiting in line, only to get to the front and almost get sick from the smell of it?,” DiDonna said.
Connecticut-based A Royal Flush put about 600 portable toilets in place around Pimlico, said Alex Townsend, a regional sales manager with the company. She said this year they’ve also been set up in a staggered formation to prevent a repeat performance of the YouTube hit “Running of the Urinals,” featuring attendees sprinting across the roofs of toilets last year.
On the other end of the lavatory spectrum from the Insta-wiz, the small green trailer at the end of a row of Pimlico stables might be mistaken for one of the many horse trailers surrounding the track.
But the trailer, surrounded by landscaped mulch and flowers is actually a luxury port-a-pot, one of 11 set up around Pimlico. Saturday will be the first year the facilities, created and provided by bathroom fixture-maker Kohler, will appear at Preakness.
The amenities don’t come cheap, though. While they’re free to use if you can find them, a week’s rental runs $3,100 for the 24-foot trailers, $4,500 for the 32-foot variety and $4,800 for the wheelchair-accessible facilities, not including transportation to the site and later waste removal. The trailers are located in the infield, around the grandstand, in the corporate areas and near the stable areas.
Kohler representative Stephanie Dlugopolski said the luxury bathrooms have been met with surprise and pleasure by their uses. But one patron of the posh facilities Friday didn’t seem to have strong feelings about the experience.
“Well,” he said with a half-smile and a shrug, “it is what it is.”
