Tell me about your NO stroller experiences???

[heatherleigh]

I would go into it with the mentality of Mom2Ai: don't take one, but know you can always rent or purchase one if need be.

I brought one single stroller on our last trip to DL for my toddler. My boys were 3 & 5 years old at the time. My 3-yr old spent a lot of time on my husband's shoulders, but my 5-year old was fine. It never occurred to me to take one for my oldest at 5, but I know individual children are all different. We wound up renting a stroller on our last night in Disneyland, for my 3-year old. It was so late- we went to see Fantasmic (which the kids missed entirely because they slept), and we were exhausted.

The stroller is very convenient for storage, but I probably wouldn't take one along with kids your kids' age.

When we go in Sept., I'm taking a single stroller with me for my 2-year old. If we wind up needing to rent one for my 4-year old, we can, but I really don't think she will need it at this point.

 

[carolinamama]

We did NOT use a stroller for DS on our 2008 WDW trip, and he had turned 5 the month before. We were there for 6 days, and he did fine. On our last day, he did start dragging, so we did rent him a stroller that day only. We haven't used one for him since.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We always bring a double jogger for the 2 youngest ones (both under 3) and on our first trip opted to not bring a stroller for our then 4 1/2 year old. She hopped on the front of the double jogger when she got tired, but come evening time she'd start falling asleep and nearly fell off the stroller as we walked down Main St. one night. So on subsequent trips with brought an umbrella stroller for her, but only for late nights in the park. We'd leave it in the hotel during the day, but when returning to the park in the evening we'd bring the extra stroller. ......this brings us to our last trip a few weeks ago......Our new double jogger (less than 24 hours out of the box) fell apart. It literally lost a wheel on the way home from the park the first night. We had our extra stroller and purchased a cheap stroller at Target for the other little one. This left my now almost 5 1/2 year old walking.....NEVER AGAIN!!!!! Luckily we had a lot of extra people with us (including my BIL with strong shoulders and my SIL with a double jogger) that gave her rides in the evening, but it was very difficult walking the 10 minute walk back to our rental home.

My suggestion: bring one for the evenings. It's a lot easier than carrying an extremely tired 5 year old, or walking with one back to the hotel.

 

[4xMommy]

(I didn't get a chance to read most of the earlier posts, so sorry if this is too much of a repeat. )

Take lots of walks beforehand. We went for 9 days last fall (six in the parks) with kids aged 7, 6, 4, 4, and 1. We stayed at the HoJo. We definitely used a stroller for the toddler, and we brought a double for the four year-olds, but we actually never used it. We had taken walks every night after dinner (about 3 mi.) for a couple months before we left. And we walked back to the hotel every day for a nap and pool time. We never had any issues, not even a complaint of being tired, and I think getting used to the near-constant walking before we left really helped. Sometimes a kid's nonstop activity during the day isn't quite the same as all the walking.

Anyhoo, with some prep, you might not need the stroller. I know that with all the "stuff" we needed for our crew, we sure were glad we didn't need to wrangle an additional stroller everyday.

 

[carebee21]

We went stroller free for the first time at Disneyworld right after my son turned 5and have also done 3 more Disneyland trips without the stroller. It's so nice not to have to worry about parking a stroller and back tracking to pick up the stroller. My son is not a walker at all, but he made it. We just listened to him as far as taking breaks. It also helped that when he started to whine about being tired, we let him say whether he wanted to leave (Which he never did) and which ride or area he wanted to walk to next. It's amazing how he could walk to what he picked

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

I started the stroller-free trips when my DS turned 4. We went to DL for his birthday, and I explained that since he was a big boy now, we wouldn't be bringing a stroller anymore. We would stop and rest whenever he wanted. Like others said, it really made us slow down and do things at his pace- which turned out to be a wonderful gift! My DD 6 had gone without the stroller at WDW for 5 days the year before, so I was excited to go no-stroller.

I definitely see when tired legs could make the stroller come in handy after a long trip of more than a couple days- but that could also be an opportunity to take things at a slower pace. I agree with maybe not bringing one at all, and just renting it at night if necessary. I was surprised my son did so well, because he had been perfectly content to ride in the stroller everywhere prior to that. I think the "big boy" part really contributed, as did not even having it in the hotel room.

 

[CindyH]

Do you have the Disney Visa? I think you can still get free stroller rentals with it (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong/outdated!)

Just be careful what you keep in the strollers while on rides - unfortunately, the Happiest Place on Earth seems to also attract the criminal element.

 

[skiingfast]

Do you have the Disney Visa? I think you can still get free stroller rentals with it (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong/outdated!)

That perk is not as perky anymore, but still 50% off.

 

[CindyH]

That perk is not as perky anymore, but still 50% off.

Thanks for the update! I knew I was outdated (and not just my clothes...)

 

[tink929]

DD just turned 6 a few days ago and announced that she is now too big for strollers and doesn't want one when we go to Disneyland (the only time she's ridden in one in 3 years anyway!). I think we'll do practice walks, and I'm kinda excited that it will force us to slow down a bit and do things at her pace. Our last trip was very zig-zag/go-go-go, and none of us were even slightly rested at the end!

 

[emum]

We were last at DL in Sept./Oct '08. The kids were aged 3.75yo, 6yo, 7yo, and 11yo. None of them needed a stroller. Our youngest DD hadn't been in any type of a stroller in 18 months prior to that, and very rarely prior to that (with the exception of pre-walking days).

All of them were troopers. We stayed at the RI Anaheim for 4 days at the start of our stay, and walked to and from the park every one of those days, and twice a day on the last two days. I hate to think how many kilometres / miles we clocked up ! We did give DD3 a few piggy-back rides, but most of the walking was done by each child, with a subsequent collapse into bed each night

Again - I guess it depends on the child.

HTH.

Cheers,
Sally

 

[PHXscuba]

Emum:

Totally true about the "collapse into bed" each night for my kids (and me too!) I think one advantage to lots of walking is a blissful sleep. I didn't have trouble getting my kids to sleep any of the nights we were there other than the first night, before we went into the park!

I also like the ideas posted above about giving a child who is dragging the option of what to do next. If they are truly tired they'll want to go back to a hotel or take a break. If they're just having a "pity party" for a moment, getting to choose where to go can be a powerful mood changer. I like the positive nature of the idea.

PHXscuba

 

[Mugglemama]

We just got back Saturday from 5 days in the parks. This was our FIRST trip to DLR without a stroller! Seriously, we've been taking strollers into the parks for the past 14 years straight (over 100 visits to the parks - that's a lot of hours dealing with a stroller...). We were SOOO excited to get to go to Disneyland without a stroller.

My youngest is 5. He hadn't been to DLR in almost 2 years. I wasn't sure how he'd do, but knew that ALL of my three older children were out of strollers at DLR by the time they were his age. He hasn't ridden in a stroller since that last trip to DLR, nearly 2 years prior.

He did great. We did not take midday breaks the first 3 days, but he totally kept up with us. We drove in, though, and took the tram to and from the parking structure each day. So, no walking to/from the hotel.

I have a *thing* about getting into bed without being showered, so each night after getting back to the hotel, regardless of the fact that we were all dead tired, I rustled each of my kids into the shower and got them into fresh, clean jammies for bed (yes, I have to pack ENTIRELY too many clothes for these trips, lol!) As soon as my 5 year old was dressed in jammies, I swear he fell asleep in less than 3 minutes (and on the night this first photo was taken, we were never even able to wake him up for dinner, no matter how hard we tried)....

And one night, he didn't quite make it to the shower....

So, he did fine without a stroller, but it did wipe him out.