Stroller for 5 1/2 year old??

[SothrnChic]

As a WDW veteran, I am used to pushing my son around the very large parks in Florida. He is in the in-between stage where I am not sure if he needs a stroller but am afraid if I don't get one, he is not going to be able to keep up with us. Any suggestions??

 

[figment_jii]

DLR is a more compact resort than WDW, but if you think he'll need a stroller, then it's probably worth bringing it along. I went with a 4.5 year old earlier this year and he didn't need the stroller very much, but it was quite helpful to have it for the walk to and from the motel to the parks and if we needed to get somewhere in a hurry. We would often park it in one of the stroller parking areas and leave it there while we walked around that "land".

 

[disneychrista]

Only you know your child. My kids were 3 & 5 their first trip and neither used a stroller. The way we tour it did not make sense. We go area by area, with very little "distance" walking. Our last day (of a 5 day trip DL only, DCA was a parking lot) I got a stroller because the plan was to do shopping revisit favorites,etc and my 8 & 10 yo nephews were in the stroller more than my 3yo was, she pretty much refused to use it because she was a big girl.

Personal Opinion Here:
No a 5yo does not need a stroller at Disneyland, except if cases of disability. If the child can't keep up the family needs to slow down.

 

[geergirl]

It really depends on your kids and your touring style. We did 5 long days in a row, walked from the hotel (Holiday Inn on Walnut) walked back every day for a nap, and had a time zone difference to deal with. My 5 year olds were grateful for the stroller.

However, one of my girls has a severe iron deficiency that means she is always quite fatigued. It amazes me how well she keeps up most of the time but it was completely unreasonable to expect her to walk over 8 miles a day on half as much sleep as usual. I'm actually a bit concerned about how we will manage without the stroller on our next trip for their 6th birthday. If things don't improve on the health front I may break down and rent one again even though I said that was it. They're really too tall though.

 

[starshine514]

My first thought would be to get by without it if you can. If you have a long walk from the hotel, you may want to consider one mostly for transport to/from and parking it most of the day.

I strollered my oldest until she was 6 because she had anemia and tired easily. My middle child, we stopped at 5 1/2 (she loved the stroller, so we would have stopped sooner if she hadn't been so attached to it). We are still strollering my 3-year-old.

 

[tnzzz]

We use a stroller for our 18mo and our 4yo walks, but at the end of the night she often could really use a stroller for the walk out of the park to the hotel. Sometimes she goes in the stroller and I wear the 18mo, but that's rough on my body at the end of the night.
I'm trying to work out what to do our next trip too. We are staying a bit further away and doing 4 park days. I may bring a compact double stroller, just for the walks to and from the parks. I would say if your walk back to the hotel is easy, just rent one in the parks as needed, I believe it's 15/day, or bring one if it's not a hassle, just in case.

 

[Malcon10t]

It really depends on you and your child. If you are racing from ride to ride, you may want it if he can't keep your pace. My granddaughter stopped using a stroller about 3yo (she just turned 6) but she was also running 5Ks at 4.5 yo. We plan on using a stroller for little brother when we go to WDW in Jan and he will be 2.5yo. I am guessing he will be walking DL by the time he is 3 as he hates being in the stroller.

Our rule of thumb, do what works for your family!

 

[ddwlms]

Yes, do what works for your family.

My oldest wouldn't use a stroller at 4. My youngest is a bit fragile. She gets headaches easily from any amount of heat. Threw up from the heat when the high was 90 degrees. So we tend to monitor her activity. At 7, my husband said that she was too old for a stroller. I thought that a stroller was needed so that the family wasn't always taking a break to accommodate DD's needs. We ended up taking a cheap umbrella stroller, and we were all glad that we did.

 

[tiffjoy]

We stopped using a stroller around 5 for both kids. My older was fine with it, but my younger loved sitting in a stroller. We told her when it was our last vacation with the stroller so she would be prepared, and we gave her the heads up that we wouldn't be taking it when we went to Disneyland again. She did fine, but she does get carried some by her dad. He's a pushover. The hardest part is the walk back at night.

We went with our extended family last month, and they brought a stroller for their four year old. One night, quite late, they let our littlest sit in it, and she promptly passed out. We had a great time carrying her a mile and a half back to our house rental! I actually carried her all but a couple hundred feet because my husband was not feeling well. It was quite the workout! That's the biggest issue I could see you having. It's not such a problem during the day walking ride to ride because you often stop, and then you sit on the rides. It's the trip back to wherever you are staying at night that's rough.

 

[onlyoneash]

There are a few stroller rental places in Cali if you google it that rent per day or Disneyland themselves? Maybe just rent one day and see how it goes?

I was thinking of downloading that app "letgo" and buying a super cheap stroller in Anaheim once we land there to use so I don't have to lug mine through the airport (I need a double and don't want to ruin my nice one anyways). I found a few on there for less than $20 already!

 

[Mama Bear Me2]

As a WDW veteran, I am used to pushing my son around the very large parks in Florida. He is in the in-between stage where I am not sure if he needs a stroller but am afraid if I don't get one, he is not going to be able to keep up with us. Any suggestions??

Hi ... every family is different so please do what works best for your family! I know that sometimes these stroller discussions (ie. stroller for older child) can become a hot topic for debate ... not always but sometimes. I would read the advice given and ultimately just decide what's best for your family.

For what it's worth, here's my 2 cents!

* You stated that you're a WDW veteran who's used to using a stroller. Will this be your 1st Park experience without using a stroller (ie. basically going "cold turkey")? Are you able to "test" out being "strollerless" at home, in a similar situation (eg. amusement park), before you visit Disneyland? Since you are used to using a stroller, I'm guessing that you may find that you miss having the stroller for storage and your child may also find that he misses sitting in one too.

* If it's not too much trouble, you might just want to bring your stroller as this will give you the option to use it or not to use it. If you find that after your 1st Park day you really don't need the stroller then you can always leave the stroller behind at your hotel. Similarly, you might want to rent one and check to see if you are allowed to return the stroller early should you decide not to use it. This might be the best solution for you since you are undecided at this time ... perhaps it's best to just decide when you are at the Parks.

* Personally, I'm pro-stroller because I know that my child is lazy when it comes to walking. He will complain if he needs to walk a few blocks!

* We just returned from a July trip and it never crossed my mind "not" to have a stroller (child is 5). I was 100% certain that I wanted a stroller for our Park days. For myself, I needed the stroller to carry our stuff. Jackets, water bottles etc. stayed in the stroller. I only carried my crossbody bag with my valuables. For my child, he needed a place to rest and to nap (especially at night when we left the parks). Since he's not a good walker to begin with, the stroller helped a lot with the "I'm tired" whining.

* We tried "taking a break" during mid-day and returning in the evening. We did this "once" as this didn't work for our family. It was hard to convince the kids to leave the park then it was hard to convince the kids to take a nap and if was even harder to convince the kids to wake up from their nap. This was just too stressful for us. It was much easier just staying in the park. Since we had the stroller, my youngest was able to climb into the stroller and have a nap when he was tired. My husband sat with him outside while he napped and I was able to take my older child to do other activities. Staying in the park was also a lot easier on our feet was we walked to and from the Parks and didn't use the trams (tram lines were too long and we would have to wake our sleeping child in order to board the trams as all children had to come out of their strollers if they wished to ride the tram).

* I'm not sure where you are travelling from but in our parts of the woods, we've had very cool weather. It's only just now that it's getting warmer. Therefore, during our trip, we had to adjust to temperatures which were about 3x hotter than what we were used to (unfortunately, we were there in the parks during the heat wave and there were heat advisories issued). Having a stroller with a cover provided some shade for our 5 year old and also probably helped prevent heat exhaustion as the heat was pretty tough on us.

* Speaking of heat, I'm going to go off topic ... I found that having my family drink gatorade helped prevent heat exhaustion and prevented "heat" headaches. Therefore, I suggest drinking some gatorade in addition to water. If you're looking for air conditioning, I recommend the Star Wars Launch Bay (tomorrowland at Disneyland). It was so cool inside that we actually got pretty cold and was looking forward to warming up outside! This is a great place also for Star Wars fans ... we met Darth Vader here! See link below for photo:

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/attractions/disneyland/star-wars-launch-bay/

* We used a Peg Perego stroller (I don't know what model as the stroller was borrowed and didn't belong to us). However, it looked something like the photo in the link below:

http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=92899566

It was pretty easy to push around even though we were pushing a heavy load. It had a little basket on the bottom and I was able to hang my bags off the handles. The seat reclined slightly (although my child preferred the seat to be all the way up even for his naps) and there was a shade canopy. We basically used the stroller to push our child from land to land and to store our gear. It was parked most of the time although if the attractions within a land were a little further apart, we would also push our child to the next attraction.

The parks were pretty busy when we were there so I liked the added security of having my youngest ride (who likes to run off) in the stroller so I knew where he was as we walked through the crowds. For this very reason, I made him ride it sometimes even though he wanted to walk. I'm glad that we did because despite being vigilant, we lost our daughter (11 years old) in the crowds one time. Fortunately, she knew where we were headed and went to our next spot. When we couldn't find her anywhere outside, we found her at our next spot.

As another aside, if your child does not have a phone (like in our case), it's a good idea that he/she knows where your group is headed next. In case of separation, your child can always proceed to your next location and everyone can just meet up when they arrive. I told my husband that there was no need to panic as I was pretty certain that our daughter just proceeded to our next location since she knew where we were headed! Having your child know where to go is much less hassle than having your child look for a CM and reporting that her "parents" are lost (LOL)!

Anyway ... good luck making a decision and have fun in the parks! Just do whatever works best for your family and all should be fine! Enjoy!

 

[3monkeys4me]

I agree that it really depends on your child, your plans and how far your hotel is. By that age none of my kids needed a stroller for Disneyland, even when our trips were 5-6 days long. My youngest didn't even really use the stroller when we went when she was 3, but it sure was handy to throw extra stuff on throughout the day (Though I wouldn't leave anything too important on the stroller, I've heard stories about theft)

However, my sister's kids used a stroller for our Disney trips until they were much older and that worked for them. My nephew would still fall asleep in the afternoons most days until he was 6 or so and it would have been difficult to carry him at that age!

 

[disneymom0104]

My son did fine without a stroller at DL when he was 5. We did bring a stroller to WDW when he was 6.5. My son is a huge whiner about walking a lot (my 3 year old does better a lot of the time)- but we were okay at DL! There was some complaining, but he managed

 

[chickapin parterre]

......it will be a long walk back to lodging......the last time I put my 5 year old son on my shoulders was on that walk....his last day on a three day visit, he rode a rented stroller in the park.....I guess all that soccer, mountain climbing and building sand castles at the beach did nothing for his Disney stamina

 

[Elima2015]

My opinion is that if you are wondering whether or not to bring one - bring it. I'd personally rather be safe than sorry (though renting is always an option if you find you need it part way through the day). FWIW, we are bring a double stroller for our 5 year old twins. I don't want them spending all their energy walking from the hotel in the morning and we plan to move quickly for at least the first few hours. I plan to park it and leave it while we are in one land and then let them ride while park hopping or crossing the park. It is also a decent storage place for their things - water, snacks, blanket. We are going in August and if I can prevent some melting due to heat by getting the sun off of them, it is worth it. My other thought is that one of mine gets overstimulated after a while - with a stroller, she can have her own space where people don't bump into her and she can put on headphones and block out the noise. I guess I'm all about preventing melting/whiney kids at all costs, so we are dragging the stroller along!

 

[chickapin parterre]

....now if could just find a solution for all the melting/whiny adults....I would pay $10.00 for it....why not, If I am going to pay $10.00 for all those extra fastpasses, why not extra magic for the whiny spouse.

 

[3monkeys4me]

....now if could just find a solution for all the melting/whiny adults....I would pay $10.00 for it....why not, If I am going to pay $10.00 for all those extra fastpasses, why not extra magic for the whiny spouse.

OMG yeesss! My husband whines twice as much as any of my kids at Disney. Now that the kids are older I plan on leaving the husband home at least some of the time!

 

[Meldev]

Our son will be about same age this trip - he could walk the parks fine - but I'm still bringing simple stroller:
1) I use it as my 'storage' (i.e. Light jackets , drinks, popcorn buckets)
2) By the end of the night the walk to the hotel is too much after he kept up with us all day, and no one wants to carry him by then either.

Do what's best for your family. (We used stroller last year when he was 4.5 years - the time change made the late nights tough and he was fast asleep in stroller 2 hours before MHP ended)

 

[kaosin3d]

We just did 5 days with our 12 month old and 4.5 year old. We brought two umbrella strollers (I found a decent quality one at Walmart for $20... Way cheaper than renting for 5 days!). Our oldest always asks to be in the stroller at home but we decline, so I knew she'd be asking in DL.

It was great going to and from the parks and really cut down on the whining. I also really appreciated having her in a stroller in the afternoons once the crowds picked up. I found when we were walking with her and it was busy I was constantly worried she would get separated.

I agree with others above, if it's not a hassle I'd bring it and if you find you don't need it you can just leave it in the hotel room!

 

[Sun_soakin]

We loved using our stroller at the parks...easy to keep track of kids in it and holds all your stuff. However, my youngest is almost six and we haven't used the stroller in the parks all year, in fact, we just got rid of them.
My sister and I took some of our kids by ourselves earlier this year, we took 5 kids, 2 of them were 5 and one was 4. We totally forgot to even pack a stroller, but we were fine...the kids walked like 23k steps per day and stayed up wayyyy late for a long weekend trip (sat to tues) and did great! No complaints believe it or not.