Double stroller or 2 singles - what would you do?

[ninafeliz]

we have a just turned 5 yr old boy and a just turned 2 yr old boy, and for our upcoming trip I reflexively rented a double stroller. However, this trip it will be me, my DH, my parents, and my MIL, so it will not be our typical family trip. It just randomly hit me a couple of days ago that maybe I should have rented 2 single strollers, so if we want to split up we wouldn't have to have one kid in the double stroller alone. our DS5 could certainly have time without a stroller, but it might be nice not pushing a double around if it isn't needed. On the plus side is the separating, and the ease of navigating single strollers. On the down side is cost, and one person (i.e.me) couldn't take both kids anywhere alone unless only my DS2 rode. My DS5 needs a stroller, he would do fine for short times but long periods gets whiny and complains, and tries to kick his brother out. We prefer to keep the peach for us all and keep him more content (and speed us up) with a stroller for him. It isn't really likely the kids would separate too much, it's more likely that my parents will do their own thing some. Another thought is to take a small-ish umbrella type stroller from home and rent a single - that cuts down on the cost. But my older son will obviously need the rented stroller (citi mini GT) and my DH will be pushing him, so I'll be the one pushing the little umbrella stroller. I know it's pretty much all pavement, but I much prefer the citi mini GT to an umbrella to push all day Any thoughts on the three choices? I keep waffling between just keeping what we have and the 2 singles, my DH thinks bring an umbrella just to save the cost of renting 2 strollers. I need to decide today, I have until wed to cancel the double and only one company of the 3 preferred ones as of last night even had 2 city mini singles left for next week.

 

[robndani]

SINGLE STROLLERS! To be honest I didn't even read your whole post before commenting... LOL! We have 5 year old twins, and our trip in Feb was the first totally stroller free trip and it was great! That being said, we always either rented or brought our own City Minis with us. 2 of them.

Umbrella strollers are flimsy and harder to push around Disney in my opinion. Also, it's SO much easier because you can go your own way with each of them! One wants Dumbo and the other wants Splash Mountain? No problem!

Have a great trip!!!!

 

[Lmans77]

Double. We've done double for both trips. 1st trip they were 2 and 4. 2nd trip they were 4 and 6. We often park the stroller in whatever land we are in anyway. If we split up, the kids are ok walking to whatever attraction is in that land. We don't usually split up to the point that we actually go to an entirely different area of the park. For instance, one morning my daughter wanted to ride Dumbo and son wanted to go to Tomorrowland Speedway. He's the youngest at 4. We parked the stroller somewhere around the teacups and walked to our respective rides. DD and I had the shorter wait so when we were done, we grabbed the stroller and went to meet them. Easier than both of us having to navigate a stroller.
But we have split where one parents goes off (ride, bathroom, snacks, shops, etc) and leaves the other for a bit with the kids. Then it is nice to have both corralled in one stroller.
I really considered doing 2 singles last time and someone advised against it. I was glad that I did not, looking back on how we toured.

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

We do a double, so one adult can push both kids, if the other parents needs to use the bathroom, ride a ride, get a snack, etc. Also, one parents manages kids while getting off and on transportation, the other folds and unfolds and holds the stroller.

 

[KathyB 0911]

I am almost in the same exact situation as you (including my in-laws coming with us too). I think I am going to rent 2 singles. I asked a similar question on the boards a few weeks ago and the advice I got was 2 singles. Hope that helps!

 

[ninafeliz]

Thanks for all do the input --- and I still have no idea what to do!!! I did realize that 2 singles is significantly more expensive than the double - when I first compared I forgot to click on include insurance ( and I definitely want that piece of mind) so once I added that to the 2 single strollers it jumped to around $225 for our time instead of $127 double. Now I'm leaning toward keeping the double. What we usually do is take a $20 umbrella stroller which is easy to transport from home and rent a double, and then for quick little trips to to placed like DD i just take the 2 yr old in the umbrella and the 5 yr old walks. That has worked we'll for us, I just thought since we had more adults and more chance of splitting up for this trip the singles might be better. I'm so indecisive in general - this is crazy!! It's. Not like either choice will be a disaster

 

[Lmans77]

I know that you have lots of extra help with the singles, but I still think it would be a pain. And in my experience, pushing a good double like a Citi Mini, especially with only one kid in it, is not hard at all. Way better than the best single stroller I ever owned at home.

 

[Hezzy04]

We are using 2 singles...butostly because a double is so bulky and my kids like to fight if they are too close too much of the time!

 

[cbarrett214]

I think it depends on where you are staying. When my kids were 1.5 and 4.5, we took a double (Britax B Ready). We stayed offsite and drove to the parks everyday. It was fine for that trip because we did not use the buses so we did not have to worry about folding it up.. We are heading back down Friday and we are taking 2 singles this time (2 very nice and light yet comfortable umbrella strollers). My kids are now almost 6 and almost 3. One reason we decided to take 2 singles this trip is because we are staying onsite and our double is very heavy. It would be a pain to fold it up and carry it on the buses and trams. We may also split up more this time since our almost 3 year old will be more active than he was on our last trip. I hope this helps!!

 

[Raenstoirm]

we will be using 2 singles with our twins. We have found it to be so much easier in crowded areas than our inline stroller or side by side stroller. (yes, we have two kids and 4 strollers! lol). We have 2 baby jogger nanos though so they fold up really small with one hand so each of us will have a twin, stroller and backpack on the busses and it will be pretty easy actually. I also bought those stroller clips that make 2 singles into a double. They haven't arrived yet though, so I don't know if they will work with full size strollers since they are designed for umbrellas.

 

[ilovefh]

Thanks for all do the input --- and I still have no idea what to do!!! I did realize that 2 singles is significantly more expensive than the double - when I first compared I forgot to click on include insurance ( and I definitely want that piece of mind) so once I added that to the 2 single strollers it jumped to around $225 for our time instead of $127 double. Now I'm leaning toward keeping the double. What we usually do is take a $20 umbrella stroller which is easy to transport from home and rent a double, and then for quick little trips to to placed like DD i just take the 2 yr old in the umbrella and the 5 yr old walks. That has worked we'll for us, I just thought since we had more adults and more chance of splitting up for this trip the singles might be better. I'm so indecisive in general - this is crazy!! It's. Not like either choice will be a disaster

I don't know if you've looked into renting from Apple scooters. They have strollers now and only charge $5 per day or $7 per day for a double. I think there is a delivery fee of $10 maybe. I've never rented from there so I can't say how they are but they seem to be affordable.

 

[Stacymarie1216]

SINGLE STROLLERS! To be honest I didn't even read your whole post before commenting... LOL! We have 5 year old twins, and our trip in Feb was the first totally stroller free trip and it was great!

Totally stroller free with two 5 year olds?!?!?! How did that go - if you don't mind me threadjacking? We have an almost 7 year old girl who is such a drama queen about walking! She does not fit into any strollers because she's too long so it's impossible for her to be in a stroller. Plus she's SEVEN! lol Her little brother will just barely be 3 so he's going to be in a stroller and she's already whining about how its' not fair . We've been going on long walks (2ish+ miles) to prep her, but I'm going to show her this to show her she CAN do it!

And for the OP - we chose two single strollers last time we went. We actually got two really awesome, beefy 'umbrella' strollers so they weren't as bulky as jogging strollers or bigger strollers. They have taller/normal stroller handles (rather than the super short ones or umbrella strollers) so I don't have to bend over to push them (I'm 5'11"). We loved it. It was also nice to have a little more storage room for a bag or cooler or whatever. It was 2 years ago - but I'm pretty sure this is the new model. Super cheap too! http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-S...8187&sr=8-4&keywords=the+first+years+stroller

 

[robndani]

Totally stroller free with two 5 year olds?!?!?! How did that go - if you don't mind me threadjacking? We have an almost 7 year old girl who is such a drama queen about walking! She does not fit into any strollers because she's too long so it's impossible for her to be in a stroller. Plus she's SEVEN! lol Her little brother will just barely be 3 so he's going to be in a stroller and she's already whining about how its' not fair . We've been going on long walks (2ish+ miles) to prep her, but I'm going to show her this to show her she CAN do it!

And for the OP - we chose two single strollers last time we went. We actually got two really awesome, beefy 'umbrella' strollers so they weren't as bulky as jogging strollers or bigger strollers. They have taller/normal stroller handles (rather than the super short ones or umbrella strollers) so I don't have to bend over to push them (I'm 5'11"). We loved it. It was also nice to have a little more storage room for a bag or cooler or whatever. It was 2 years ago - but I'm pretty sure this is the new model. Super cheap too! http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-S...8187&sr=8-4&keywords=the+first+years+stroller

We just didn't get them strollers...LOL! I told them they could lead the way and explore where they wanted to go without strollers, and there would be so much less stopping/getting in/getting out/blah blah blah and they just went with it. We rented a double at AK one day and it way more of a pain than anything else!

 

[Stacymarie1216]

We just didn't get them strollers...LOL! I told them they could lead the way and explore where they wanted to go without strollers, and there would be so much less stopping/getting in/getting out/blah blah blah and they just went with it. We rented a double at AK one day and it way more of a pain than anything else!

Thats awesome!

 

[Disfan1968]

We have this thing and LOVE it. It rolls and negotiates turns pretty much just like a single, even with my 5 and 4 year old loaded into it.

http://www.amazon.com/Britax-B-Read...28562&sr=1-24&keywords=britax+double+stroller

 

[ninafeliz]

I thought I would update everyone. I ended up keeping the double stroller (a city mini GT double) instead of getting 2 single city mini GTs. Honestly, I just took the path of least resistance since I could not decide!! I already had the double reserved, and I would have had to cancel it and get the singles from a different company that wasn't out of them for next week and spend another $100. Thank you all for the advice, I'm sure either would have worked fine. I'll take a tiny umbrella stroller to have at the airport, and for quick trips with the little one at the resort. Honestly, Disney is the only place you can use a side by side double stroller easily. I'm always amazed that i can fit it in the stores, even when they are quite busy. you just have to have patience to wait while people browse to fit through some places after they move on. Anywhere else you won't fit, and if you do you get dirty looks from everyone.

 

[mcjaco]

I've gone two times with my twin sons. Once at 15 months, and once at 30 months. Brought single strollers both times. Easier to manuever, carry, get through the airport, store in a car....the list goes on.

Most of the time, they'd be parked in whatever section of the park we'd be wandering anyway.

 

[Coconut8473]

I've posted the same question on some other forums for our upcoming trip with a 5.5 and 1.5-year old. I was advised by several people to do the double stroller. At this age, we likely won't be splitting the kids up much except to use the restroom, and if we do, the 5.5-year-old can walk (he'll likely be walking a good 80% of the time - we want the stroller more for the occasional rest and for evening strolls back to the hotel). The deciding factor for me was thinking of the buses: so much easier for one parent to take both kids onto a bus while the other folds up one stroller, than having each parent wrangle a child AND a stroller. (Now it sounds like you have some extra adult hands with you, so that might be as much of a factor, but something to think about.)

 

[quagmire0]

We rented one of those City Jogger strollers on our last trip and those were pretty sweet. Very easy to push/maneuver
.

 

[SweetPeas9825]

My kids will be 6, 4 and 9 months for our trip. Im leaning more towards 2 singles. We can separate if need be, especially if the baby needs a nap and i decide to take her back and hubby stays with the bigger ones. Or maybe for a few hours we might only need to bring 1 stroller to the park. I think 2 just sounds easier for our situation.