Stolen Strollers

[bornwiththeears]

It has been many, many years since we had need of a stroller for the parks. Way back when, we would rent the stroller and on many occasions, had our stroller taken while we were on a ride. An inconvenience, but no big deal. This is my question.....we will be taking our grandson for his very first trip. My daughter wants to take his comfy stroller (which is also very expensive). For those of you with small children....how often are strollers taken (stolen) and have any of you had your personal strollers taken?

 

[glvsav37]

It has been many, many years since we had need of a stroller for the parks. Way back when, we would rent the stroller and on many occasions, had our stroller taken while we were on a ride. An inconvenience, but no big deal. This is my question.....we will be taking our grandson for his very first trip. My daughter wants to take his comfy stroller (which is also very expensive). For those of you with small children....how often are strollers taken (stolen) and have any of you had your personal strollers taken?

its a pretty wide question, but for us...never. 2 trips, 2 strollers each time during busy summer times and nothing ever stolen.

Just be wise and dont overtly flash anything of value and take your important stuff with you in a bag if you park the stroller anywhere

 

[bhardy]

I was there last summer and had no issues with stroller. Just put a bright colored bandana on the handle so that you can tell it's yours and other caN tell it's not there's. . Also just FYI cast members sometimes move them around so don't panic if it isn't in the exact place you put it.

 

[bornwiththeears]

Did you use a park stroller or did you use your own?

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We have rented strollers from offsite companies, so they're expensive, but not ours. We always mark them with a red scarf, both to set ours apart and to make it easier to find. We've never had a problem with the stroller being stolen or even anything being stolen from it (even when DH left my entire backpack--with my camera and money in it!!--sitting right on top of it!).

My personal opinion with the park strollers being stolen is that sometimes people might not know that you actually have to rent them...they think they're free. Or people think that Disney will replace the rental "for free" to the rentee, so it's no biggie to "borrow" one for awhile. It isn't like anyone is leaving the park with one of those plastic barges, so I really think that people can justify "borrowing" one fairly easily.

 

[revdon64]

Two trips in the last three years and never lost our stroller. Last trip we rented from Kingdom Strollers, a very nice jogging stroller called the City Mini. Second the idea of putting something on the handle that makes yours recognizable. There are a lot of similar strollers around.

 

[DisMama5]

We've brought a stroller the past three trips, never had an issue, once it was moved to the proper area of parking.. And I had a mini attack thinking it was stolen lol but it wasn't, only moved by a CM in the correct area which was fine with me once I found. I've left our stroller at every park to go on attractions or into shows and never worry really even after that one incident. Sometimes it's in the back of my mind but there are sooo many and I figure what are the chances, were all families on a Disney vacation, I think if anywhere, Disney world would be one of the last places this would happen. But I'm sure it does once in awhile.

I do agree with PP saying don't flash anything valuable in the stroller and if something is of high value to you, bring it with you. Other than that I wouldn't worry much honestly

 

[LSUfan4444]

We bring a small cable chain lock and run it through the back wheel/frame just to be safe. A CM can still move it if they need to but anyone else pushing it around the park would look suspicious. Most of these crimes are those of opportunity. If yours looks like an easy steal, it is much more enticing. People don't go for the expensive strollers, or nice cameras or phones...they want the easy ones.

 

[skateshome]

We've used KingdomStrollers the past three years. They drop offa really nice stroller at your resort and pick it up.

 

[nanalisa]

We've used a stroller for 8 trips and I've never had one stolen. Several times with a pretty high end brand. The last stroller I bought to take with grandchild, I bought a lime green one, so it's easy to find. Some folks leave their strollers parked with their diaper bags, camera, etc... I don't do that. Why tempt?

 

[disnerella]

We have always rented a park stroller and never had any problems either. We have had CMs move them (to organize them) which was just a wee bit disorientating.

 

[Dan Murphy]

My daughter uses this on the rental stroller (expensive, about $40 or so), never a problem, very easy to use.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007N0TS5I/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[pdarrah]

Not really current info as it has been a few years since we've needed a stroller - but we visited 2-3 times per year while my son was between 6 weeks (his 1st WDW trip) to 5 years. (We still come, but he didn't use a stroller after that!)

We brought our own stroller for all of those trips (12-15 times? Each trip 5-10 days.) and never had the stroller taken. Only once was anything taken from the stroller (a Disney shopping bag that didn't have anything of much value in it.). We tend to not leave much and take our stuff with us - it seems to be asking for trouble to leave a bunch of bags unattended in a stroller.

The stroller was MOVED many, many times. Even when we parked in an "official" area, it would often have been rearranged when we came out of the ride/show and we had to search to find ours.

We had no trouble with strollers at WDW - however the airlines managed to break 4 of them over those years!

 

[MichaelaF]

We've taken our stoller, and it was fine. The biggest annoyance is the CMs moving it and having to find it in the larger stroller parking areas.

The biggest problem we've actually had was when we checked ours to DLR and Southwest broke the tray off it. They ended up giving us a travel voucher for the cost, but it was a bummer, since our kid loves leaning forward in his stroller....

 

[girli565]

We use a stroller lock we bought off amazon.com. It works great and we've had no problems with anyone taking our $300+ britax travel system. I even run the cable through the diaper bag when we run it through the wheels so they can't take that either. The CMs can still move it but rolling it around the park would be difficult.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

We've used both our own and Disney strollers for all of our trips. Never had one stolen. Now, we've had them moved by CMs, and had to try to locate them but never stolen.
Plan on bringing our own again our upcoming trip

 

[ericstac]

We bought a McLaren used on craigslist a few years ago after reading on disboards about their elite durability. It has been well worth the investment and after four trips it's still going strong, never stolen or messed with besides the eager CM having the need to move it to be more organized..

LOVE the bright bandana idea, I am going to do this for our July trip nothing like going to stroller parking and having yours blend in with all the others.

Our youngest is now 5.5yrs old and doesn't ride much but we still take the stroller just to carry all of our stuff. We will probably always take a stroller..

 

[becd]

We have been renting strollers from WDW for 4 years now and have never had a problem with one being stolen. However, in AK I did have to search for one for about 30 minutes because a CM moved it to an overflow lot and no one seemed to know where that was (it had been parked in a designated area too so I was not amused).

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I was there last summer and had no issues with stroller. Just put a bright colored bandana on the handle so that you can tell it's yours and other caN tell it's not there's. . Also just FYI cast members sometimes move them around so don't panic if it isn't in the exact place you put it.

We have always rented a park stroller and never had any problems either. We have had CMs move them (to organize them) which was just a wee bit disorientating.

I remember I got really nervous on my first trip in 2006 because I thought my stroller was stolen. Instead, the CM had just moved it to another area! Now that I know this, I don't panic as quick.

 

[Momof2Singers]

DON'T leave any valuables in the stroller. We never had our stroller stolen in the many trips to Disney, HOWEVER

When my daughter was 3, we were at Downtown Disney at WORLD of DISNEY store, it was the next to the last day and we had our backpack in our stroller. I DID NOT leave the stroller, ever. My daughter was trying on hats, and when it was time to leave I noticed my backpack was unzipped. To make a long and very sad story short, someone had unzipped my bag and removed (2) cameras right before my eyes.

All video from 5 days including my daughter's interaction with Belle at CRT was gone in a second. We reported it immediately and security was there in a second, others were reporting the same thing. A group of traveling thieves, including women and children had done this to lots of people within the hour.

I only vaguely remember a woman (dressed differently) and little girls near my daughter.

Due to fast reporting, they caught them with vans full of merchandise from stores, etc, however, the thieves were smart and disposed of the tapes and film. The police used our cameras for evidence, it took 6 months to get them back and by that time, they no longer worked.

I am mentioning this to possibly prevent someone else from losing their valuables.

We will be returning to the CASTLE for the first time since this incident, in July. My daughter who is now 20 still remembers and hopes to make new memories with her sister who has never been.

I know I am a little off topic, but I totally agree with the other posters, DO NOT have anything in the stroller that would alert someone to something valuable. And putting something colorful on the handle is a wonderful idea.
We have always put something on our book bags so we can find each other. They are strips of plastic ribbon, we had a tablecloth that we cut and it works great. My husband does not like them, but we make him do it anyway. We now all have iphones, but sometimes it is difficult to even hear the text or call come thru

Have a great trip