Please help! Need stroller advice!

[First Family Trip]

We're taking our 5 old son and 3 year old daughter to Disney. I've already sold my double stroller and planned on renting. Since then, I've heard some unfavorable opinions on the rental strollers. I'd like some advice on whether or not the ones at the park are okay. I'm sure my kids won't nap so I don't need reclining ability, but I would like (and need) basket room and will need a double so they don't "fight" over who gets to sit. Knowing them, they'll both want to at the same time - always!

Or, should I rent one from an off-site service? The only drawback I see to this is the fact that I'll probably need the side-by-side and wonder how difficult that will be to get through the parks, and I'm not sure how difficult it will be to transport it from park to park on the monorail, bus, etc.

We'll be staying at the Polynesian.

15 days and counting down!

 

[Gretchen]

My opinion:
You need a stroller at the Poly. It is a big resort, and spread out. It is not a problem at all to take on the Monorail. We have always just wheeled the stroller(s) on with out removing a thing. With the busses, you need to take at least the person out and fold it up. Last trip was last December. We had DD, 6 and DS 8 months. DS stayed in his car seat stroller system, it is a smaller one by graco, and we purchased a new smaller graco stroller for DD. I just did not want to listen to the 'I'm tired, when can we stop' litany! It worked out great. I think we spent $30 on the small one for her. It had a sun shade and big basket for stuff, and reclined a little-though we didn't use the recline. She could get in/out by herself and walk when she wanted. We had a car and when it was time to go to MGM/EPCOT we took the car. We stayed at W. Lodge so we took the boat to MK, didn't have to get DS out of the system for the boat. Only problem with two strollers, riding in the front of the monorail, had a hard time fitting us and two strollers in with the driver, but we did it, and the rental car trunk with all of our stuff on the way from the hotel. rental car was a Dodge Intrepid, not a whole lot of room for 2 strollers and my huge suitcase. This year we are going with one stroller, taking smaller luggage , and will rent for DD if absolutly necessary! Oh, we did end up leaving the small stroller at my inlaws in Naples, they brought it back to CT for us.
You can find good cheap strollers at walmart or baby's r us on sale/clearance. One more thing, I wouldn't go the double stroller route, take two...
Sorry so long!
Gretchen

 

[disneyterri]

I was in the same boat as you last year. DD2 1/2 and DS 5. I brought one stroller and just rented one at the parks. It's an added expense but well worth it when you know you won't be listening to whining all day from an exhausted child. I didn't want to bring two strollers... it was hard enough getting on and off the busses with one. The strollers at Disney don't have much storage on them, so I wouldn't go with a double. I did, however, find them very easy to push around.

 

[AspiringCindy]

Doesn't the Poly have strollers? I thought I read that they have jogging strollers available to the resort guess!...or is it just Poly Concierge?

 

[Baileymouse]

I've never heard any complaints about the rentals from A Baby's Best Friend, and they deliver it to your resort before you arrive. At the Poly, you'll need it and you'll be able to bring it with you to the parks. The park strollers are not my cup of tea, that's for sure.

 

[crisi]

We love the rentals - although to the best of my knowledge they are only available at the parks and not at the resorts or DTD.

Except for MGM, which I believe still has the old style umbrella like strollers (which I don't like), the park strollers are the molded plastic. They are easy to push, easy for both my four and five year old to fit in, easy for them to get in and out of. We were at the Boardwalk, and discovered that the kids could make the hike to Epcot pretty easily, and then we'd rent the stroller at the International gateway. The Poly is no longer than that. The strollers have a place in back to stick stuff, but it won't hold a ton (it did hold my mother in law's purse however, which is half a ton, and I throw my backpack on the roof).

Don't know about your five year old, but there is no way mine would fit in a traditional double stroller - which is what BBF has available. His legs are far to long. Even when my daughter was three, fitting her into a traditional double was difficult, and even more difficult to get her out of. We did consider bringing our umbrellas to get us to the park entrance (especially that walk from BW to the International Gateway), but took them out to discover there was no way my five year old was going to fit into that umbrella stroller!

Disney rentals aren't cheap. They don't offer a ton of storage. They don't recline. And your kids will need to do a little walking (or you'll do a little carrying - we do both). But they will fit a five year old. They are easy to push - even when loaded with two children and going uphill. And Disney will replace them for you if yours gets "borrowed."

 

[AspiringCindy]

First Family Trip,I just found out from Tikiman's website that jogging strollers are available for free on a first come first serve basis at the Poly, but only for concierge guests. I wasn't sure if you are staying concierge!

 

[brooke1]

what do yall think about the disney strollers fitting a 10 year boy. he has a clubfoot and gets tired easy.
thanks

 

[Waggy182]

Second Baileymouse in reference to A Baby's Best Friend www.abbf.com We always use theur equipment and are always VERY glad we did: Clean, Comfortable, and Convenient!

They have both the double sid by side and the front to back. I have used both and have never had a problem with either. The side by side will fit through doors just fine.

Have a great trip!

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Brooke 1,

I think that a small size 10 year old would fit in one of the larger single strollers, or if not, you could rent a double that would fit him. My DS had just turned 9 on our last trip and was fighting a cold and not feeling great. I tried to talk him into letting me rent a stroler at Epcot one night when he was really tired. He refused to ride in a stroller, but he would have fit fine. He was even a little tall for his age.Not sure if the MGM ones would fit a 10 year old but the others would and we have seen kids older than that in them. We saw one with 4 kids all between 6-12 once!!!


Jordan's mom

 

[SueM in MN]

Originally posted by brooke1
what do yall think about the disney strollers fitting a 10 year boy. he has a clubfoot and gets tired easy.
thanks

Safari Steve (a MK CM) has posted that there is more than one size of strollers and the larger size3 would fit up to a small 12 yr old.
I have also read that these places will rent special needs strollers (sort of like large umbrella strollers made for people up to 100 pounds):
Care Medical:
http://www.caremedicalequipment.com/
Phone (407) 856-2273 • Toll Free U.S and Canada (800) 741-2282

Colonial Medical
http://www.colonialmed.com/about_cms.html
(800)747-0246

http://www.all-about-kids.com/main.htm

If he sees a Physical Therapist at school, you may want to ask the PT if there are any equipment lending closets in your area that he could borrow a large size stroller or child size wheelchair from.

 

[debbiebones]

what about renting a stroller and getting it on the monorail...are the side by sides easy to fit on the monorail? I'm just trying to decide if we should rent one from an outside company and have it the whole week, or rent one daily at the parks for our 3 1/2 and 5 year olds.

Thanks,

Deb

 

[opus_00]

We just returned this weekend from our trip. We brought our own side-by-side stroller because our kids are young (12 mos and almost 3) and need to recline to nap. But DH and both agreed that if we go back when our kids are a bit older and don't need to nap, the Disney strollers will be fine. They are spacious, have large wheels, and look like they are east to push. They would definitely fit older kids as well.

I would say at least half of the strollers we saw were Disney strollers, and somewhat less than half were personally owned strollers. They kids seemed happy in the Disney strollers and the parents didn't seem to mind them either. I think they would be fine for older kids.

Also, we didn't have any trouble getting our sbs double stroller onthe monorail. They just let us take a spot reserved for a wheelchair unless someone in a wheelchair came. We would have had to fold the stroller for the trams and trains though, so we opted not to ride those (too much of a hassle getting the kids out and all of the stuff out of the basket underneath).

Paula

 

[Rapunsel]

We brought our own stroller, but we did borrow a Disney stroller at Rafiki's Station at AK. They are nice and very easy to push.. Also if you take the train at the MK and get off at a different stop you can just show them your 'card' and they will give you another one.. So it is kind of like a borrow one at the next stop type thing... Also you can go to another park the same day and just show them your card and pick up the stroller there.. I will say.. There is no storage.. So you see a lot of strollers being used to hold stuff and the kids are walking...


I will say though the benefit to having our own stroller was at the end of the day our little one could sleep in his stroller instead of my arms... It was a tight squeze in the rental car, but to me it was well worth it.
We also used the stroller at the resort to lug our laundry around... Just put the laundry bags in the stroller and go...

I would say that it is a personal choice.. It would have cost us about $40 to rent and I found one at a yard sale that was brand new for only $10.

 

[wrwrwrwreee1971]

We carried a 4 and a 2 yr old last summer and stayed at the poly. Find 2 of the cheap, light foldable strollers and buy a mesh holder to attach to the back to keep your stuff in. This works a lot better than anything else we have tried. With the mesh holder, security could see through it when you went into the parks. It folded up for easy storage in traveling, We were able to roll our children directly on the monorail without having to fold the strollers up. Do not carry a big bulky stroller. I saw families fighting double strollers and big strollers, and I felt like a real disney insider with my two cheap strollers. You can even buy an umbrella clip to put on the stroller to keep your child out of the sun. Just remember, go cheap, and you will be suprised how well it will work out. The biggest plus was being able to roll the kids on the monorail without having to fold up the strollers!

 

[brooke1]

thanks for all the help

 

[bubbasmom99]

We brought our double side by side (a Graco duolite) this past May and it worked well but it was extremely wide and even though it fit through doorways, we had a hard time maneuvering it in crowded situations. A Baby's Best Friend rents this particular model, I believe. We also have a double tandem and I think, in retrospect, we would have been better off with that one. However, it was nice to have the kids play with each other sitting side by side.

 

[shelleyz]

We just got back from a week at Disney and brought 2 umbrella stollers for our almost 3 year old and 4 year old. They worked out pretty good, except that my youngest fell asleep every day in it and it didn't recline so I had to lean it backwards and push it like that while he slept. That was a pain. They were fine on the busses we just folded them up before the bus got there and DH carried them while I helped the kids on the bus. We put mesh stroller bags on them also.