Help me with my stroller options!

golden1

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
Messages
755
Background: I have a Peg Perego Pliko that I am bringing for my 2.5 year old. I originally thought that my 4.5 year old dd would be able to walk or ride on the running board of the Pliko. However, talking to my friends that have gone, it seems that she will probably need a stroller to rest in for herself. So which option would you choose?

1) Rent a WDW stroller.

The cost for length of stay would be about $64. These look heavy and cumbersome but at least it would be one less thing to bring on the bus.

2) Buy an umbrella stroller and bring it with us.

I am thinking about the Maclaren Volo which is about $100. It seems like the lightest quality stroller out there. While it costs more than renting, at least I have something when I get home and I could sell it. The bad part is that I would be stuck with a stroller that I may not use for the first half of the day. Plus I don't waste time in the AM waiting in line to rent a stroller.

3) Something I haven't thought of yet.

Thanks for reading!
 
I don't have kids yet, so I can't speak from that type of experience but I can say that I always feel for the parents of young children who seem to always struggle with getting on and off of the buses. Between making sure you have your child with you, to carrying a backpack and other bags/jackets/toys, etc, to fussing with the stroller, to finding room for everything once you're on the bus, it always seems so stressful for parents, mostly at the end of the day.

I'd vote for renting at the parks and having one less thing to worry about on the buses and in your hotel room...
 
When we went with DD5 (now 8) and DD2.5 (now 5), we found that DD5 was fine throughout the day. It was at the end of the day on the way back to our room that got us especially after a late night of fireworks. Many of the evenings, I ended up carrying an asleep DD2.5 while DW pushed sleeping DD5 in the stroller.

With that said, I don't know that I would have wanted to push around or carry a second empty stroller throughout most of the day.

During our next trip in 2 weeks, we are anticipating that DD5 and DS2.5 will share the stroller throughout the day. We are also planning on driving to MGM and Epcot on the days that we will stay late. And since we are staying at the FW Cabins, we will have roomside parking.
 

I love my Maclaren. We actually bought it for our trip last year and it is so light and easy. I think the main issue is the time OUTSIDE of the parks. Will you be taking the buses? Depending on where you stay there could be a lot of walking around the resort to and from buses.

You may want to put the $ towards a rental car instead of a stroller rental. If the kids get tired it makes for a super quick trip back to the room. Also, you can park right near your room and eliminate the hike.
 
We took two umbrella strollers for DD5 1/2 and DS3 last January. They were WONDERFUL. We made it through 7 1/2 park days with no one being overly tired. Remember, even the walks to the park entrance from the bus are long. What we did was use the strollers to push the kids to Fantasyland, park in one place, go on all the rides, retrieve the strollers and move on to Tomorrowland, etc. Because they were less than $20 we didn't worry at all about them being stolen. I (thoughtlessly) left one outside a bathroom at MGM for several hours one day and it was still in the exact same place when we returned. Our kids NEVER use strollers at home or anywhere other than Disney, but I thought we accomplished tons more with the strollers along. I'm definitely planning to take one for DS4 in February, but haven't decided about DD6.
 
When we went in 2005, my dd was a few months shy of 4 ½ but we bought a Jeep umbrella stroller for her to sit in & she did sit in it.

We figured if she wanted to walk, we could fold it up & hook it onto the other stroller we had for our ds.

We bought a Joovy for our next trip (in 2008) & now all 3 of my kids use that one stroller so that is all we will be taking & by then our oldest will be 7 so she should be walking more then she did in 2005 but she will have the option to sit/stand with ds in the back while our youngest is up front.

OK more then you wanted to know!
 











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