How do you secure your stroller at WDW?

[Captain_Hook]

I just got my brand spankin' new Maclaren Techno XT. I love, love, love it!!! I can't sing its praises enough! Of course, now I am terrified that it is going to get stolen while we are enjoying one of the many terrific rides at WDW.

How do (or even do you) secure your stroller while in the parks?

I thought about a bike lock, but my wheels are solid, so I can't immobilize it that way.

I heard you can't lock it to something -- in case a CM needs to move it.

Dirty diaper hanging on handle trick -- doesn't make much sense to me (after someone pointed out that there are tons of trashcans in WDW so why would anyone carry something like that around?)

Ribbons, stickers, balloons....

Parking next to a really expensive stroller???? Not nice, but self-preservation often isn't... (just kidding)

Please help me with some ideas!

Also, feel free to tell me (in a nice way, of course) that all the posts here have cause me to be a bit of an alarmist regarding stoller theft!

Thanks in advance for any ideas!!! (Oh and before anyone gets upset about "yet another stroller thread," I did a search and couldn't really find anything specific to stroller security.)

 

[gladstoneganderfan]

We never locked our stroller. Cm's can & will move your stroller to make room & organize the stroller area. Plus, if you park in the wrong place, they will move your stroller to stroller parking for you.

We never left anything on our stroller we won't mind losing. We did see people leave purses, video cameras, new purchases, you name it on their strollers.

 

[ChristusG]

Yep, no locking allowed. CM's move them often. We've had ours moved numerous times. We just go, bring our stroller, and hope for the best. We have an expensive Phil & Ted's Sport Buggy (well, expensive to us LOL!) and we havent had a problem with it. It's been to several Disney parks, Universal, Sea World.....we've never had a problem. I mean, there's always the possibility, but I dont think that majority of people at Disney are out to make off with expensive strollers.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I'd mark your stroller in some way with your name and cell phone number (in both obvious and inconspicuous places). I used pieces of paper and taped them onto the bars of the stroller. I'd also make sure it had something easily identifiable as yours on it (colorful ribbon, balloon, etc). I think the most common problem with strollers is mistaken identity (someone accidentally takes yours because it looks a lot like theirs). If you've labeled it well, someone is less likely to take it by mistake (or on purpose).

 

[allie1078]

I'd mark your stroller in some way with your name and cell phone number (in both obvious and inconspicuous places). I used pieces of paper and taped them onto the bars of the stroller. I'd also make sure it had something easily identifiable as yours on it (colorful ribbon, ballooon, etc). I think the most common problem with strollers is mistaken identity (someone accidentally takes yours because it looks a lot like theirs). If you've labeled it well, someone is less likely to take it by mistake (or on purpose).

that is what I did. To be exact I had a red stroller(not very many that color at disney), tied green and yellow ribbon to the handles, and put a luggage tag w/name and number underneath the seat where you couldn't see it along with a sharpie wrote our name on the bottom side of the seat(to claim it if someone did mistakenly take it). But never had a problem.

 

[cigarboo]

I think the likelihood of your stroller being stolen is very slim. The last 15x with my Maclaren double, it never even crossed my mind that someone would take it...of course it was only brand new once. Like pp said, just make yours easily identifiable so someone doesn't mistakenly take it and that it's easier to find in the sea of strollers as the CM's will move it. Take all your valuables out, even autograph books. I think there are more chances that things go missing from the stroller than the whole stroller itself. If you're really worried, just take a cheap old stroller so you don't end up worrying during your trip. Or bang up the new one a bit and you wouldn't really care. The airlines will do that for you, complimentary. Sort of like what I do with a new car... The first ding always hurts, but after that, no worries.

BTW:If I were a thief, I'd probably steal someone else's stroller if you had a dirty diaper on it. Smear some melted chocolate on the handle bars

 

[nilseks]

I did exactly what someone else said--put our name in an easy to see area, but also in a hidden spot. I figure having it clearly marked should deter someone from taking it, but if it DID get taken, I could identify it easily by the hidden name underneath. I used scrapbooking stickers to put our name down one of the front bars where it was very easy to identify.

 

[SueM in MN]

Another thing some people have used to mark their stroller is mylar curling ribbon on the handles. It's hard to take off without a scissor and someone taking it by mistake would be more likely to feel the ribbon on the handles, even if they don't notice it by looking right past it.

Since your stroller has solid tires, that makes it harder to lock, but what some people have done is to use a lock in a way that makes the stroller impossible to fold. If someone does take it, not being able to fold it limits their 'options' regarding how to get it out of the park. You need to fold the stroller for the buses or the parking lot trams (or even to get it into a car trunk).
Marking it in several places (some inconspicuous) is important too. CMs have written that they sometimes find abandoned strollers, but have no way of contacting the person they belong to.

 

[PaDisney02]

We didnt have any trouble leaving our stroller at disney. I did make one of those stroller tags from the disign board with our family name of it, that way we could see it easily. At first i was nervous too about leaving our strollers alone but every1 else does it. There were a few just like ours though, so I'm glad i had my stroller tag!

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

I used my techno in feb when we were in disney and i never locked it down any where. Although mine was covered in mardi gras decorations and on one day we had one of the balloons that are a clear circle balloon w/ a colored mickey head latex balloon in it, I have to say this was the most brutal balloon I have ever been around.

ETA~ mine does have a lugagge tag on it w/ all of my info as well as two valco baby universal cup holders.

 

[Mommy2JulietJocelyn]

I am nervous too - but I made a sign and had it laminated with our name and toen on it - and a LGMH. I am going to do like the PP have said - write our info someplace inconspicuous Plus, if you don't know how this stroller works you won't be able to fold it. I haven't decided how else I am going to make it stand out yet but I will also have a buggy board and hopefully a toddler jump seat on it somewhere. I will have to take a pic of everything put together.

 

[coolbeans]

we left ours in stroller parking many times on our last trip for anywhere from 30 minutes to over 3 hours (DS was in the mood to walk and I didn't want to argue.. it made him sleepy!) I left our diaper bag on the back and at any given moment it had autograph books, diapers, wipes, change of clothes for DS, glow sticks in packaging, Spin and light up Buzz Lightyear and sometimes a lanyard full of pins (DD left hers in there once or twice and didn't tell me till we were waaaaaaaaay far from it! I just told her to pray it would be there when we got back!)
Long story short, no problems over the whole trip!!

 

[Miss LD]

We had the same stroller and were also worried.
But, it was fine. We bought a bike lock to do the whole locking so it can't fold thing, but we only did it once. There were so many strollers that we weren't too worried.
We hung Canadian flag stuff on our handles as did my sister's family (they were on sale after Canada Day and since we travelled with my parents we wanted our strollers to match somewhat). And we had clothespinned on the baby's blanket
With so much stuff dangling it would have been hard for someone to mistake it as their own and too much bother for a thief to take all of it off.
But, I nearly had a heart attack when a CM moved the stroller a REALLY far ways away once.

 

[tjwk]

We have never worried about it, never secured it or anything......

 

[WeCampDisney]

We have been to WDW 5 times since 2000 but this will be our first trip (Dec 6-14) with a baby, our 9 mo old gr dau. I haven't even thought about stroler security. I like the idea of identification, name, cell phone no. It will have lots of Christmas decorations and lights on it so it will be easy to spot in a crown of "less fortunate" strollers. Thanks for the tips.

 

[mommy-on-the-move]

We were there for 2 weeks with a shiny new Mac as well and we didn't bother securing it. I did make a biiiiiig circular sign which we cable tied to the handles with our surname on "W****** family" in big letters which meant no one would confuse it as their mac and walk off with it.

We also often left the stroller bag in the seat and put the raincovers over the stroller- actually that would be my best tip, make sure you leave the raincovers on the stroller whilst in rides as the weather can really change whilst you're in some of the longer rides/shows and we came out to a dry stroller everytime thanks to raincovers, other people weren't so lucky!

 

[tam626]

Glad I read this. We were going to take a bike lock for our stroller but it sounds like it's one less thing I need to pack.

 

[Captain_Hook]

Thanks for all the tips! I had heard about the raincover idea, but was worried that too may get stolen!

I really think I need to stop reading the threads about stuff getting stolen in Disney! I've been a million times, but this is the first time with the "little man," so I am worried about all the extras we will be lugging around!

 

[natnelliesmom]

We have been twice in the last year- for 9 nights each trip. We used our B.O.B. Duallie Revolution. I was nervous at first- but we had NO problems at all. We left it in stroller parking many times. I usually would squeeze it in as far towards the back as possible. I figured that if it was difficult to extract from the other strollers it would be less likely to disappear on me!
We also left items in the stroller- although we took the camera and backpack with us.
I would second the recommendation to use a poncho to cover your stroller when you leave it. Many times we'd come out of a show to find it had been raining. Some strollers got wet!
-Sarah