Stroller Help

[acummins72]

My wife and I are looking at getting a stroller to take with us when we go to Disney. We want a two seater, preferably one that seat front and back not side by side. We want it to be able to fold fairly easy, but understand that due to be a double, that may not be reasonable. We have been looking at the Baby Jogger City Select. We just have an 18 month old now, but looking at expanding our family soon. We want to be able to take the stroller on the Disney buses. Any help would be so kind.

 

[Deb & Bill]

My wife and I are looking at getting a stroller to take with us when we go to Disney. We want a two seater, preferably one that seat front and back not side by side. We want it to be able to fold fairly easy, but understand that due to be a double, that may not be reasonable. We have been looking at the Baby Jogger City Select. We just have an 18 month old now, but looking at expanding our family soon. We want to be able to take the stroller on the Disney buses. Any help would be so kind.

Whatever you buy, you'll want to try it out in the store. See how fast you can empty it and fold it up and how much space it takes up when it is folded. You can't get much on the buses these days. And even the monorail will make you fold the stroller some days.

 

[acummins72]

I agree that we will be going back to the store. We were just there last night for what seemed like 9 hours, but really was only 1.

We really want a stroller that can convert from a single to a double by adding another seat.

 

[Mariep26]

The Phil & Ted's line has the in-line double that converts to a single. Some downsides though: the baby in the back only sees what is to the left and right of them. They are looking at the backside of the other kid otherwise. The 2nd seat removes so folding is not easy on the go. Have to be careful about tipping. The child in front can't just up and leave or the weight in the back will have it tipped backwards. With that said I did use my in-line when my daughter was about 4-8 months but that was the limit to its usefulness. We have the City Mini Double and love it for travel. I also have the Bob Duallie and I like that for park and neighborhood walks. For WDW my ideal would be MacLaren double but umbrella strollers are not recommended for very small babies and seat adapters are not applicable. We end up renting a City Mini for WDW and we would bring seat adaptor if needed.

 

[thedonduck]

I wanted to add my thoughts. We have a2.5 and 1 year old. I was all set on the City Selext. I loved that I could flip the seats in multiple configurations. I loved how narrow it was, etc.

When we went to the store we saw the Stroll-air My Duo and FELL in live. Although it is a side by side it is acutely narrower than a standard wheelchair (thus fits through all doors, aisles, etc). The seats flip around the same way as the select, there is a huge basket, it came with rain covers and bug covers! We have had this stroller for about 5 months and ABSOLUTELY love it! I just wanted to give you a less heard of, but in my opinion much better stroller!

I want to add that we use this stroller weekly at Disney and it works great everywhere! We have people stopping as all over the pack asking where we got it and if we like it!

 

[melindae10]

Here is another idea. I don't know how long you plan on waiting to expand your family, but when my daughter was about 2 we bought a Peg Perego Pliko P3. We were also planning on expanding our family and I liked the fact that one child can stand on the back of it while the younger rides in the stroller. It is compact, has good storage, and is easy to fold up. Now my daughter rides on the back when she is tired of walking. The only problem is that they can't stand on the back when the stroller seat is reclined. I used the Ergo with my son for the first 6 or so months anyway so that was never a huge problem for us. I had a few friends who used the Phil and Teds double and really liked it. I don't know how easy it is to fold up?

 

[zumbergc]

I keep seeing the city select all over the place in the last 3-6 months. There are a ton of twins around and that is mostly who i see have the city select.

I spoke with one mother who said that she could fold it into the back of her sedan. Don't remember which car.

They didn't have them in stores when we were looking for strollers, but now buy buy baby carries them in store to look at them

 

[merina888]

We have a Graco Quattro Tour Duo (different and better than a Graco Duoglider) which is a tandem (or front to back as you call it) and I'm happy with it. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than the City Select and we just don't use it enough to spend more on a double. My 4 year old generally walks most places and we only use it for long trips and such.

That being said, I strongly recommend that you try out any stroller before buying. Double strollers are a lot heavier than singles. Be sure you can fit all your gear into the basket underneath and can easily access it. Be sure you are good with opening and closing it easily and with one hand. The most important piece of advice is to make sure it fits in your car. The first single stroller we bought didn't fit easily into our car. We had to remove the wheels to get the trunk to close. Whenever we buy a car now, we check that our baby gear will fit comfortably in.

 

[mjkacmom]

As someone who has owned many double strollers, I really prefer side by side. Since you only have one child now, why not rent a good single? Depending upon when you have another child, you might never even need a double.

I gave away my first tandem stroller when I found out I was having twins, and bought a double jogger, and side by side umbrella (combi).

 

[excitedtwinmama]

My wife and I are looking at getting a stroller to take with us when we go to Disney. We want a two seater, preferably one that seat front and back not side by side. We want it to be able to fold fairly easy, but understand that due to be a double, that may not be reasonable. We have been looking at the Baby Jogger City Select. We just have an 18 month old now, but looking at expanding our family soon. We want to be able to take the stroller on the Disney buses. Any help would be so kind.

Hi, I own the city select and we are NOT planning on taking it to disney! I am concerned with it being stolen or damaged during our flight. Having said that, we really LOVE this stroller. We bought it when it first came out in 2010 (had a long waiting list) and have been using it since. My twins are now 3.5 years old and we still use it all the time. I found this review on youtube to be right on with the pros and cons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdeMgSm-xe0

As far as the fold goes, you can fold this stroller with the seats on (but its bulkier) so we always remove the seats and then fold. When you do this it is REALLY tiny (we can fit it in the trunk space of our jeep wrangler) but you do have 3 pieces so for things like riding a bus (with 2 kids) its hard to juggle folding, holding 2 seats, the frame and the kids, but unfolding and reassembling is a snap!

Another nice thing about this stroller is the fact that you can add a glider board as your children get older and that you can use the seats as a high chair. The high chair attachment is called baby jogger Hychair and attaches to a table.

I always recommend this stroller to twin parents since it offers 2 FULL size seats which is needed when you have children the same age and weights. One thing I can tell you about the select with 2 different size children in it is that the heavier child (usually the oldest) needs to sit over the larger wheels (closest to the parents) or it is harder to turn. Since you have 2 children different ages and sizes another other options for you might be the britax b-ready.

 

[Lilliputian]

Not only should you try before you buy, but you really need to try it with your two children in it. Since you don't have 2 children to put in it, it's not really a good time to buy. You can borrow someone else's baby to get a fair idea, but double strollers are affected by both the total weight of the two children in them and the discrepancy in weight between the two children. Some of them are impacted significantly less than other models, but that aspect will always be there. Since you don't know how far apart your children will be in age or size, it's hard to know for sure what to look for.

I'd just get a stroller for one that you love right now. If you like one that can have an extra seat put on, that's fine, but don't sacrifice too much for that stroller. If you like another single stroller a lot more, or if you can pay a lot less for a single stroller that's just a single stroller, go with what you love. You can figure the double stroller out later when you get there.

Personally, as a mom of 5 children ages 9 and under who has used several double strollers, I strongly prefer side-by-sides. I'll never buy another tandem. I'll admit that I haven't ever even pushed the singles you can add a seat to (those weren't even around when I first needed a double stroller), but I know I don't want one. I like having the older child be able to hop out on his own, and I know the older one likes to see better than that. Also, my kids are really tall, and those strollers don't look like a good option for a taller older child. Regarding Disney World specifically, many people use a stroller at WDW longer than they do everywhere else. Most 4 and 5 year olds aren't going to want to sit in one of those strollers.

Side-by-sides do look huge, but they're no wider than standard wheelchairs, so they fit almost everywhere. Only older, pre-ADA buildings have doorways that aren't wide enough. It's a a little tough to go clothes shopping in them since the racks are close together and toddlers love to touch things, but they're usually pretty easy to handle. They also fold really flat. The old-style tandem strollers tend to be HUGE when you fold them. I don't know about the newer ones, but the size and weight of a folded stroller is extremely important. There are some stroller disadvantages and quirks that you can overlook, but if it's a bear to handle when it's folded, you'll never like it.

 

[jessicajdesigns]

I have a city select and took it to Disney on our last trip in May with our then 18 month old. We loved having that stroller with us!!! It was what she is comfortable in, has lots of room for stuff underneath and a breeze to push! The only time we were not so keen on it was getting on and off the buses. But the benefits outweighed its downfalls. It is my personal opinion that this is your best option for a convertible stroller. This is coming from a mom who has owned 7 different stroller between her 3 children with one on the way. I know someone posted about the concern about it getting stollen and I have heard that on here before, but I have gone to over 10 times and never had any of my high end strollers taken. I also have had 2 sisters go through the college program who both said that it is close to never that this happens. But, again this is just one Moms opinion. What ever you do, have fun and pick what works best for you!

 

[mfulk]

We also bought the city select when it came out in 2010 and LOVE it! We've used it for 4 trips to Disney and will be using it on a 5th in 2 weeks. It is a bit of a pain to take apart for the parking lot tram but it really only takes an extra couple minutes and for us this stroller is totally worth it.

When we bought it our kids were 5, 3 and 14 months. The older two used the stroller and I had the baby in an ergo carrier. It was so much easier to push then the baby trend sit n stand we had before even with the older two in it (and they're both really big for their age).

We knew we would be having another baby at some point and I loved that we could get the bassinet attachment. When #4 was born we got a lot of use out of the bassinet part until she was about 6 months.