Strollers and what not?

[shay]

Thanks for responses... in advance.
We're driving in from AZ and we want to know if we should lug our own stroller, or rent one at Disneyland. What is the rental price,,,anyone? I had a terrible stroller experience as a small girl when my sister's stroller was stollen while at Disneyland. Does this happen often? Is it pretty safe if we leave the stroller with our jackets and backback in the basket part when we go for rides? Thank you.

 

[disneychrista]

I believe the stroller rentals are $7/day.

I would not leave anything in the stroller while I rode, just like someone took off with your sisters strollers, so may they with your stuff.

 

[Lynn-Marie]

On the recommendation of several folks on this board, we purchased a Combi SUBV (Sports Utility Baby Vehicle) for our Disney (and other park) visits. It has been a great investment. Since strollers cost about $7 to rent per day, our $35 purchase has paid for itself several times over. It folds up nicely and, from what I understand, is one of the smallest when collapsed. In fact, we keep it in our trunk all the time (we have a Passat) for those trips to the local zoo, etc. We never worry about leaving it anywhere at DLR or even our local (SF) zoo. Wherever we go, there are always other strollers that are MUCH nicer than ours - so ours would not be a first choice. We also chose a fairly loud pattern so it sticks out from the rest. We typically go ahead and leave jackets and water in the basket - but nothing that is irreplaceable or that we would be sad to lose.

Some people use the rope locks (such as the ones used for bicycles) - but we haven't found a need for that either at DLR or our local zoo. We go to our local zoo about once a month and to DLR about every 3-4 months or more. We purchased the Combi for its first use in December 2001 - so far so good.

Let me know if you have any other DLR/baby questions. Have fun!

--LM

 

[Dana_Buckley]

I'm not sure if I'm lucky or stupid, but I leave everything - backpack, wallet, digital camera and video camera - in my stroller and haven't had a problem yet. Maybe I am just lucky? I just refuse to worry about it all day long.

I have a mid-size stroller, I think it was $35 also. You may want your own stroller for transporting from the car to the hotel and from the hotel to the tram for the park or in the parking lot.

Have a great vacation!! (We are going to AZ, Scottsdale, for our vacation in three weeks!)

 

[Carmanp]

We will be in Disneyland at the end of June and I am also debating on taking a cheap stroller or renting. While at DL in '98 we had our stroller stolen with my jacket in the basket. It was the first time all day that I had taken out the diaper bag, which had our camera in it.

I would not want anyone to go through what we did. It was an unbelievable feeling that someone would do this to us at what was supposed to be the "Happiest place on earth".

And I also hate to say this, but lost and found was quite rude to me when I reported it. Someone that came to lost and found had overheard my story and the CM that was assisting me told them that it was not stolen, that I had misplaced it. Well, put it this way, it was never found by them or us. This happened on our first day there and we ended up having to rent the rest of the trip.

We learned a very valuable lesson and would either rent or buy a lock to lock our stroller next time. I know they discourage this, but we're already paying to be there in the first place, aren't we?

I'm willing to bet it doens't happen often, but it sure sucks when it happens to you! Plus, it was my favorite stroller of the ones we've owned over the years and we couldn't find the same one to replace it when we got back home.

We eventually got over the "trauma" and had a very memorable vacation that we will never forget.

 

[roymccoy]

Remember, they aren't stealing the strollers, they are moving them to another part of DL and ransacking them. They took our stroller and it was found on the other side of the park but it had been emptied out. There isn't much of a market for stolen baby strollers, but there is a big market for digital cameras, cell phones, leather jackets, laptops, etc.

When our stroller was taken, the DL security guard told us that many stollers are taken everyday. He said that it is most peoples idea that have a stroller stolen, to go to the front gate and wait for the criminal to bring it out. Most strollers are recovered in DL, he said, but they are usually emptied out. He said that they are even thrown over handrails into bushes and even thrown into the Rivers of America.

Here are some tips that he gave us:

1. Park your stroller backwards so it's not as easy to see what's in it.

2. Don't have any fancy camera bags or laptop type cases in the stroller. They advertise the fact that there is something expensive in the bags.

3. Put all of your stuff in those free "Peter Rabbit" diaper bags that are given out in the hospitals.

4. Don't leave cameras, cell phones or CAR KEYS (I actually never thought of this one) in the stroller when you leave it. If they take your car keys, you could really be in trouble!

5. Don't leave any baby medicine or important foods in the stroller. (Although Disney does keep just about every baby medicine in stock or they can get it quickly from a pharmacy)

6. Put a colorful "swath" of paint or a colorful wrap of yarn on the handle of the stroller. Criminals don't like to be in possession of anything that is marked and easy to spot.


It's no fun to walk off a ride and find that your stroller is missing. Also, if it's taken at night or in a big crowd, you can't even get around very fast to get help. It's okay to leave things in the stroller, but just make sure that you can live without anything that's in it just in case it's taken.



Roy

 

[MateasMom]

Originally posted by Dana_Buckley
I'm not sure if I'm lucky or stupid, but I leave everything - backpack, wallet, digital camera and video camera - in my stroller and haven't had a problem yet.

Me too. We go to DLR a few times a month and since 4YO was about 10 months old. We've never had a problem...except when a friend left a camera in our stroller. When we came out we thought the camera had been taken. Turns out, the bag must have fallen out of the stroller as it was turned in to lost and found. -- Anyways, we have a Duo Glider (2 kid stroller) and we leave normal things like jackets, cell phone, keys, food, ect in the stroller and no one has bothered it yet. -- We did think that our stroller was stolen on our first trip to WDW, but it turned out that we hadn't parked in stroller parking so a CM moved it for us

 

[hookedup]

Roy's advice is right on. DONT leave anything in the stroller that would be appealing (or even tempting to rifle though)
We have been really lucky - we have a larger fold up stroller that has gotten pretty thrashed over the past 3 yrs but we do leave stuff in the bottom like water bottles and such. I try to never leave our diaper bag packpack - even though it is only a diaper bag with nothing really valuable (except a spare pair of paints for my potty-training son! LOL!) from theives' point of view it could be a backpack filled with valuables so we lug it on rides when we leave the stroller.
We go to DL quite often and I see so many strollers filled with all kinds of stuff left parked. I have wondered about the theft rates as no one has ever told me a theft story before. I have heard a lot of stories about people loosing their rental strollers, but not their personal ones.
A good reminder to be smart about what you leave in it and to have ID on your stroller (we have a couple of stick on address lables in discreet spots with our last name and a work phone number).

 

[Carmanp]

I thought that I must reply to Roy's comment. I would normally agree that they could care less about a stroller, but care more about what's in the stroller. But I think in our case they must have just wanted the stroller. We had nothing in it but a cheap coat so obviously we had nothing of value in it to pawn.

Second it was stolen the very first day we were at the park and we checked in with lost and found for the next three days and it was never found. They also informed me that if it was found, it would be returned to us later, even after we returned home.

I just want people to be aware. We learned a valuable lesson and I wouldn't want other people to experience the same thing and spoil their vacation!

 

[IandGsmom]

I read somewhere that to stop someone from stealing their stroller they put a diaper in the back and spilled some coke or root beer on the diaper for effect. No one stole that stroller.LOL