How much hassle is a large stroller?

[Jarmo]

We're thinking of bringing a larger stroller for an almost 2 year old.

The extra storage and hopefully napping space would be great, but I'm worried about being chastised by someone on Disboards after nipping their heels (not really, get over it).

How easy is it to navigate the world with a larger rig? We'll be using a car for the most part, and we'll be there next week with "lower" crowds.

 

[chris31997]

I have found most kids will sleep where ever when they are tired. With that in mind, a large stroller gets very heavy at the end of the day and you have to fold it up. Not sure I want to deal with that and a sleeping kiddo. Not too mention, not sure how much you want to leave on said stroller while you are riding the rides. There is "lower" crowds and there is still crowds. There will be people all over the place, restaurants will be hard to navigate, stores could be difficult, and people just don't see strollers. I would go for a small foot print or wheel print

 

[keepswimming76]

A stroller is a pain to lug around I think no matter what the size. That being said, we always use one.

A good question is the how does the stroller handle compared to a smaller one? If the larger one is actually easier to push than the smaller one (which always seems to be the case with us), then I suggest going with the larger stroller. It will kill your arms by the end of the trip, and possibly your back if the stroller is hard to push and/ or navigate curbs.

 

[jsantini]

We are debating about this too. We have a Bob (revolution, I think) and it has really big tires, but it's easy to fold and it's not that heavy. It's big, however, and I'm not sure I want to deal with it in stores and crowded areas. On the other hand, it handles so nicely and I don't want to buy or rent another stroller when we have one that's good at home. Would like to hear from others who took a Bob and how it worked out.

 

[mommy123]

Actually, I am totally in favor of the stroller. My youngest is 5 and I am dreading the day we get rid of it. It is a godsend when they are tired, and it gives us a place to put extras ( and souvenirs ) without having to carry them. We had no trouble navigating the crowds at Disney, and we take it all the time to the (crowded) theme park near us. FWIW.

 

[GatorMama]

The biggest pain in the rear is how it handles when it's dolded of broken down, because you will have to fold it for all buses and trams. The big stroller we use is such an incredibly HUGE pain in the rear when folded that my husband sprung for a monorail resort instead of POR this year just so we don't need to fold it as often. when we can, we use our Maclaren, a nicer umbrella atroller with a decent basket. That's what we used for a two year old. We only take the big one when we have to push more than one kid. And since we have three, we need room for two on this trip!

 

[Jarmo]

Thanks for the tips all. We typically don't use buses or trams. Sounds like the biggest things we need to think about is maneuverability through stores and lugging around the extra weight.

We took it out to the NY State fair this weekend and it wasn't too bad... crowds there are quite a bit more tightly packed than Disney in September

 

[NJlauren]

What do you consider a big stroller? A city mini? Or a double bob? I think a double for one kid would be a disaster, and what I would consider big. We rented the city mini when we went and it was totally fine, not to big and easy to use. I don't consider my standard every day stroller big necessarily, we traveled for a week with an umbrella (not Disney) far less walking and I hated it and I'm pretty sure my daughter did too. Go big!

 

[TravelingTotMom]

I was wondering what you were considering a "large" stroller too - your normal everyday stroller vs. an umbrella stroller? If so, then go for the large.

We've taken our Britax B-Agile, which we use everyday, on two trips. It was wonderful b/c it reclined for naps and had good sun coverage. We had no issues maneuvering it and were comfortable leaving it in the stroller parking areas (just used a backpack as a diaper bag and took that with us). It was also nice to have the extra basket space on the bottom.

Even though we drive to Disney, we still use the busses. Yes, you have to fold strollers up, but it wasn't bad at all. One parent carried the kid and one got the stroller.

 

[Jarmo]

It's a Baby Trend Crosstown I believe. Looks similar to a City Mini, probably a little longer.

 

[patdoc98]

We used an old City Baby Jogger double stroller last year. (This is _not_ the City Mini - the Baby Jogger is bigger, with inflatable tires, so it's more like a Bob Revolution.) It's since been discontinued, probably b/c it's just too big for most people.

All that said, it was great, except for on the buses to and from MK. We drove to the non-MK parks. Disney makes all gates and doorways wide, for obvious reasons. We never brought the stroller into shops. We generally stashed the stroller in the designated stroller parking areas for stretches of time, but we also kept it with us for other stretches. Our youngest (8 months old) napped outside in the stroller while we had lunch at Cosmic Rays, Pecos Bill, and FlameTree BBQ on various days.

Even on the MK buses, everybody was nice about it, but it really was a giant pain getting on and off the bus. Even folded up, the stroller took up space where 2 people could have stood.

The big stroller is especially nice while waiting at rope drop. The kids can have breakfast and relax, without their space getting too crowded.

 

[kwdw]

IF you aren't riding the buses - it's just going to be a pain in stores. And you can't take them into most of the restaurants, anyway - so unless you plan to spend alot of time with the stroller in a store - I wouldn't be concerned based on your size description. It's a 2 yo.... you are gonna have stuff and you will want them to nap in it.....

 

[rg35]

We have triplets, so our first trip required us to use both a double and single stroller. The kids were 4. We didn't have any particular problems navigating around, but after 4 years of getting around with triplets, you get used to what you're used to. Four our last two trips we've just rented the two disney double strollers - one for the girls to share and one for our boy, who is larger. This year was probably the last year for strollers, and I'm quite sad about it.

 

[MimiOfTwo]

We've taking our Bob Revolution on several Disney trips. Love it. Friend brought another stroller with small wheels (don't know the brand). It did not maneuver well at all. It was such a pain to push in the park. Ours was a bit more trouble to get on the bus (not much) but wayyyy nicer to have in the parks.

 

[sweetmama17]

I use my double Bob stroller for the parks. It is a BIG stroller. I love it because It pushes soooo easily and worth it for the parks. The biggest hassle would be folding it up, so we avoid bus transportation and trams. We will walk from the parking lot if we drove or depending on where we are staying take the ferry or monorail. It even fit in our hotel room at Wilderness Lodge. I didn't notice a difference in crowds between my single and double and both strollers can be a little bit of a pain in shops.

 

[mandis77]

In 2013 we took our double stroller for the two kids. The worst part was folding it up to take on the buses. Otherwise we did fine. It was great at the end of the night when they both fell asleep.

 

[nobellybutton]

When my DD was turning 5 we had a big bulky jogger stroller, we used it in August and we had no issues. Crowd levels were high because it was beginning of the month, and I was happy to have a place to comfortably test which helped to diminish crankiness. Mine maneuvered great and when getting on the monorail no issue, only the end of the night gets a bit tight and we didn't use the trams.

 

[maxiesmom]

It depends on how big big is. Disney does have a size limit on strollers. If it is larger than 36 x 52 it will not be allowed.

Btw, if you do hit someone with it, an apology is in order. Telling them to "Get over it" is not the way to go.

 

[Jarmo]

Btw, if you do hit someone with it, an apology is in order. Telling them to "Get over it" is not the way to go.

But I'm perfect, and if they get in my way it is their fault

(it was a joke)

 

[pwrflpills]

We just used our Joovy ScooterX2 double stroller at MK and it was great as a home base (lots of storage) and both kids fell asleep in it before noon. Definitely worth having. It was also easy just to park it at the Carousel and do Fantasyland and get lunch. Moving around was only a problem in stores if they were crowded, but I couldn't get through by myself if I had wanted to in many cases. It does weigh 32lbs, which I discovered was not fun to deal with in the midday heat while hoisting it up into the tight MK rail road cars.