Do you leave things in your stroller at DLR?

[Brancaneve]

we've had things stolen before (an expensive sweatshirt that belonged to my daughter - we FOUND the thief with the sweatshirt minutes later, about 20 feet away, and took it back!), so we don't leave anything we care about anymore. just water bottles and snacks, left in a cheapie diaper bag. we've never had any problems with those kinds of things, and we've always taken our own strollers (not designer, but still in the $200 range...), without having anyone take them.

however, this fall will be our first trip without a stroller in....well, more than a decade! our youngest will be almost 5 when we go, and we are SO glad to be going stroller-free.

That's a fascinating story. Do give us more details? What was their reaction? Did they just take off the sweater and give it to you?

 

[joeysmommy]

we've had things stolen before (an expensive sweatshirt that belonged to my daughter - we FOUND the thief with the sweatshirt minutes later, about 20 feet away, and took it back!), so we don't leave anything we care about anymore. just water bottles and snacks, left in a cheapie diaper bag. we've never had any problems with those kinds of things, and we've always taken our own strollers (not designer, but still in the $200 range...), without having anyone take them.

however, this fall will be our first trip without a stroller in....well, more than a decade! our youngest will be almost 5 when we go, and we are SO glad to be going stroller-free.

OMG! I hope you read them the riot act for swiping your sweatshirt..and not a very smart thief. What was their excuse?

When I rent my free Disney Visa DL stroller and the CM asks for my last name for the stroller rental card I always ask them to put "Take this stroller and die" or "Do Not Take" but they won't do it.

 

[Brady's Mom]

We don't leave anything valuable in our stroller, but we will leave our snacks and water bottles in it. One of my favorite stroller suggestions came from this board. The best thing we found to do is turn our stroller around and park it backwards from everyone else's. This way we can find it easier and it makes it *harder* for someone to target it, since they have to wade into all the other strollers to turn it around and take it. It certainly is not impossible, but just not *easy* either, especially in a sea of strollers.

If we buy any expensive souvies we always take them with us and we will drag our sweatshirts onto rides with us, since we like them and don't want them stolen. I have a pink minnie sweatshirt from DLR that DH bought for me and don't want it stolen and DS has a pirates sweatshirt that he loves. The rest have WalMart Mickey sweatshirts, but we don't want them stolen either, so we just bring them with us. I always wear a sweatshirt on Space - since I freeze to death in that bldg. I don't know how it will be in 2 weeks - since I haven't been in the summer since I was about 5.

And I have a gross/funny stroller story - when we were at DLR in Dec. DH saw a stroller that looked just like ours, parked where he thought ours was parked and picked up the Jamba Juice that was on the top of it and started drinking it - thinking it was mine - only to discover that it WAS NOT our stroller and so obviously the drink was not mine. I still laugh and shudder every time I think about it. It was pretty funny and sort of gross when you think about. Thankfully, no dreaded disease has hit him in the last 6 months since our trip!!!

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

And I have a gross/funny stroller story - when we were at DLR in Dec. DH saw a stroller that looked just like ours, parked where he thought ours was parked and picked up the Jamba Juice that was on the top of it and started drinking it - thinking it was mine - only to discover that it WAS NOT our stroller and so obviously the drink was not mine. I still laugh and shudder every time I think about it. It was pretty funny and sort of gross when you think about. Thankfully, no dreaded disease has hit him in the last 6 months since our trip!!!

Omg I'm laughing AND dry heaving! HAHAHHA EWWWWWW

And those poor people who never knew. Guess what I'll never leave in the stroller again ROFL

 

[bumbershoot]

I've never thought about the issue of leaving food/drink where it can be messed with, but in my 20s I am 99.999% sure I almost fell prey to someone who had spiked my drink. I was with friends of friends, and left my beer at this really yucko club in Seattle while I went to the bathroom, and soon after getting back I felt VERY sick and bizarre. I had such a huge reaction I made my friends leave, so if someone did put something in my drink for nefarious purposes, they were not successful.

America has some sick sick people, and I put nothing past them...I think that living in other, more civilized countries, people don't think of it...

But eh, I don't like the feeling of having anything stolen from me, so I don't leave a thing. That balloon just peeved me SO much on this trip! It was FREE, nothing of value was taken, but something was taken all the same. Augh. And the pirate hat? The next evening DS told his story (that *bad* pirates had taken his hat) to the right CMs, and they snagged a Lead who gave him a slip to replace the hat, so we were made "whole", but it still felt lousy for quite a long time.



While at Lost and Found to report the missing light saber, we were behind a family that's actually on the Dis. Someone had stolen their personal sweatshirts...and it was the second time someone had stolen from them at Disneyland...


We do the park backwards while locking your wheels thing (just with the brake, not a lock lock). It's awkward enough for US to get at it, let alone someone else. When we bring our own stroller nowadays, it's just a Volo...


I saw someone with a BIG BRIGHT sign on their park bag, it was laminated and hanging from the zipper...it said "NOT YOURS" on it. I thought it was hilarious and brilliant.

 

[Mugglemama]

Good luck! This trip was with my already 5 year old, the one who demanded (and needed!) a stroller. I think I'll start giving him an allowance, so I can take it back to pay for rental strollers, LOL.

Maybe next year his sensitive knees (genetics...I am prone to leg aches and always have been, most of my father's brothers and sister have had at least one joint replaced if not more) won't need one...

LOL!!

this trip will be our "experimental" trip without a stroller. we're not taking one (in fact, we don't even OWN one anymore), and since park hours will be 10-8 when we go (i should say "if" we go...we had a trip planned for august but then canceled after my dad died unexpectedly 10 weeks ago - none of us felt like doing anything fun, and we're going to use that august vacation time to spend with family instead. now that we're coming out of the worst part of the grief, i find myself thinking about disneyland a lot, so we're planning a trip for september).

i figure with the shorter hours, we'll probably be okay. if we need a stroller we can rent one while there. i know it adds up over 5 days, but still it's better than carrying those darn things on the tram, at least IMO.

last year, we brought the stroller but found we could have done without it. we spent so much time sitting down on rides, that we really did get a lot of rest while in the parks.

so...we'll see how it goes!

 

[Mugglemama]

That's a fascinating story. Do give us more details? What was their reaction? Did they just take off the sweater and give it to you?

i was PISSED, to say the least!! we had just gotten off of the Pooh ride, and were walking in the direction to leave critter country...you know how all the strollers are parked on the left? and there are benches, and this whole hispanic family was sitting at this one bench, and the friggin' dad actually HAD MY DAUGHTER'S SWEATSHIRT IN HIS HANDS, admiring it!!! wow, it still makes me SO angry to think about it!

i forget exactly how it all went down, i'm sure my husband remembers. one of us actually took the sweatshirt right out of his hands, and he, OF COURSE, pretended he couldn't speak english! he just had this stupid, *EDITED*-eating grin on his face the whole time, like he thought the entire thing was pretty amusing.

so since then, we don't leave anything we care about in the stroller. we don't buy souvenirs until we're leaving....literally, it's the last thing we do before leaving the parks on the last day of our trip. we don't have kids in diapers anymore, so we just keep water bottles and granola bars, etc. last year we did leave those in the stroller while we went on rides. and my husband did the park-backwards-with-wheels-locked thing, so the pouch that our water bottles were in were actually hidden from view.

thievery seems MUCH worse at DLR these days than in the past. we had AP's for a couple of years and were in the parks a couple nights per week during those years. i used to leave everything (like expensive kids' clothes, lol) in it, and we never had a problem. maybe that's because we were blocked out at the busiest times of year? anyway, the sweatshirt-stealing incident happened on our last trip with AP's...we had moved out of state and decided to do one last week at DLR before the AP's expired. it was in October, and it was pretty busy.

 

[andee2000]

We didn't have an issues with either of the strollers we rented last summer, but this thread has me thinking: what happens if your stroller does get stolen? Can you get another free of charge? That would make me sad that someone was so cheap to take my stroller.

 

[LavenderPeach]

We didn't have an issues with either of the strollers we rented last summer, but this thread has me thinking: what happens if your stroller does get stolen? Can you get another free of charge? That would make me sad that someone was so cheap to take my stroller.

Keep the receipt they give you when you rent the stroller and you can go back and get a new one if yours gets taken.

 

[Kayla's Mom]

I saw someone with a BIG BRIGHT sign on their park bag, it was laminated and hanging from the zipper...it said "NOT YOURS" on it. I thought it was hilarious and brilliant.

I LOVE this -- that is hilarious!

 

[stampinshauna]

We don't leave anything and we don't take our own stroller in case someone decides to "borrow" it. We get a free stroller rental with our Disney Visa, so we use that. Last trip (first time with a stroller in DL), DH left his picture that he got as part of the segway tour in the stroller while we had dinner and someone stole it. Hope they enjoy the picture of the segway tour group. We take a backpack with us so we can just keep things in that and use the stroller solely to push DD.

 

[mystic_path]

I wouldnt hesitate leaving smaller items such as snacks, sippy cups, maybe a cheap jacket.

I definitley would not leave anything of value such as souveniers, cameras, ect.

AGREED!!! If you want to keep a sippy cup or a soother or 2 on you, then take a small backpack as well as backup. That way you can also put your Mickey Ears or whatever you need to in there with your money and cameras and other valuables while your on a ride. But leave extra unnecessary jackets or shoes in the buggy. They are easily replaceable.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

I always take my wrist strap wallet and camera with me, never in the stroller.
We use a boring backpack for diaper bag; not too worried about someone stealing my diapers but I guess I would literally be SOL if they did
I always take my kiddos' Disneyland sweatshirts tho we seldom need them but I've marked them inconspicuously (not on a tag that could easily be ripped out) in case the thief were stupid enough to wear it (ie put it on their own child) I could identify it easily.
We don't buy souvenirs until ready to leave--I think the Disneyland bags are too easy a target--but I guess you could use the bag holding service if you bought items early in the day.
So far so good! I have to rely on the good will of **most** people or thinking about the crazy few would make me paranoid!

 

[teatime]

we bring our own light up toy stuff if the kids want it. ( ebay is my friend) and if there is a have to have in the parks we either wait until the last day and get it, or buy it only if its small enough to fit in the back pack.

 

[andee2000]

Keep the receipt they give you when you rent the stroller and you can go back and get a new one if yours gets taken.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll give the receipt to my husband. I'm known for losing reciepts.

 

[bzkds]

We use a boring backpack for diaper bag; not too worried about someone stealing my diapers but I guess I would literally be SOL if they did

Not at DLR.. but years ago, I used a cheap, plain backpack as a diaper bag as well. We were at the play area inside a McDonald's and left it on the floor under the table while we took our toddlers to play. Came back to the table and it was gone. I have laughed for the past 15 years thinking of the person who opened it up and found diapers and pacifiers inside!! LOL (and if they needed diapers badly enough to steal mine, then I'm glad I could help! lol)

Beth

 

[Mom2Joce]

In all our years with a stroller and we STILL are using one with our 2 year old we've NEVER had a problem, again like many here we don't leave anything of value in the basket but do leave diapers, sippy's, etc. in there. I have always, found a place in the back or tucked away and then turned it around and put the brake on. But after reading some of these posts I think I'm going to be even more careful from here on out!!

 

[Potterswife]

Somebody swiped our newly bought kettle corn from the bottom of our stroller, it's a Maclaren XLR, I tucked it under my sweater and I reclined the seat, so they really had to dig it out. Oh well, after 6 years of strollering around Disney and only to lose a replaceable kettle corn...no complaints here.

 

[andee2000]

Swiping kettle corn? That is awful. People are really sad.

 

[dangerkitteey]

We have on many occasions left our diaper bag in the stroller, along with jackets and sweaters. A couple times I ACCIDENTLY left our camera in there too, or bags with toys we just bought. Never had anything swipped, I guess we're lucky.