Strollers

[pigelet]

What are the cost of strollers in the parks? If you park hop, is there a voucher so you don't have to pay twice? Do we get a discount as members? My kids are 5 & 7, we are going in Oct and don't want to bring strollers and I want to be able to get them around quicker when they sart to fade. I think my old ones are too small for them.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by pigelet
What are the cost of strollers in the parks? If you park hop, is there a voucher so you don't have to pay twice? Do we get a discount as members? My kids are 5 & 7, we are going in Oct and don't want to bring strollers and I want to be able to get them around quicker when they sart to fade. I think my old ones are too small for them.

Not sure of the price, but, you only pay once a day. No, DVC members do not get discounts on strollers.

 

[TerriBelle]

You might be surprised and not need them very much.

We forgot our strollers at the airport on our last trip. Our twins were almost 5 and they did great without. We did rent a double stroller once. We used it a MK and then took the monorail back to Epcot. There we picked up another stroller and used it to walk back through EPcot. We dropped the stroller off at the entrance near the hotels.

We found that we really enjoyed our "stroller free" trip. Our best investment was in buying the pressed penny books. The kids enjoyed walking in the parks because they were searching for the pressed penny machines.

 

[Lesley]

I think the doubles were $15 when we rented in July....but they may have gone up since then (I think I recall reading that somewhere....) The rental is for the full day, you can switch parks...turn in the one stroller and pick one up at the next park. At the end of your day you can get a Disney dollar back for returning the stroller.

No discount for DVC...but we've found the doubles useful once or twice on each of our previous trips, with our now 3yo and 8yo. We'll be going back to a single soon....baby on the way, but then once our 3yo is too big for our stroller (we carry our babies) we'll be back in the rented doubles on occasion. We generally only rent when we want to cover distances without hearing whining...otherwise we just take it easier..at whatever pace our kids can handle on each day.

 

[lenshanem]

I thought i read they were testing out lenghth of stay stroller rental?

 

[Zurg]

I am going to be sad when DD doesn't need a stroller, it is such a great pack mule for cameras, water, junk we buy, etc....

When Zurgswife & I go without the kids I keep looking around for the stroller to put stuff on.

 

[lenshanem]

I agree Zurg. I will dread the day when we won't have a stroller to pack everything in to. Actually, I've even thought ahead. Maybe get one of thsoe backpacks with the pull handle and wheels or evn one of those collapsable carts on wheels. You coudl just park it in an area and go back to it when you move on. We did this last trip with the stroller since our 2 year odl wanted to walk everywhere anyway. I just used my fanny pack to put extra valuables in it that I didn't want stolen.

 

[pigelet]

It is sooooo sad for me to NOT be bringing a stroller. My babies are getting big! I did buy this really cool backpack that is rolling but you can take the backpack off the wheels when you go into an attraction.
Although we probably don't need the strollers, I'd rather pay the $15 rather than listening to the whining (especially in the MK) after 1:00 or 2:00 when they will be getting tired of walking. If we go to Epcot at night which is why we are at BWV they will be way too tired. When its dark, I'd like to know where they are.

 

[VMS]

Our trip last year was the first one we have done without strollers in many, many years. I felt like I reached a milestone! But when we did use strollers, we always used an offsite company. Their strollers were much more comfortable for the kids, the seats reclined if they wanted to nap, and I believe they were cheaper. Also, we always took them back to the room, so those long journeys at the end of the day did not mean we had to be lugging around a tired, sleepy child. We found it worked much better for us.

 

[TerriBelle]

I am curious about the "stroller lovers". Do you guys spend the whole day at the park? Is that why you have a lot of stuff to bring with you? I'm just curious because one of the reasons we love DVC is that we don't bother with the commando visits anymore. Since we visit often we don't seem to stay at the park as long as we use to. When it gets crowded, we head for the pool. If we had stayed all day at a park we might have needed a stroller, but for the length of time we went the kids did fine. I've noticed that there are a lot of people attached to their strollers but I have to say that I was glad to get rid of it! I bought one of the black Disney backpacks to carry a few things and the kids have small fanny packs.

 

[valeriekc]

Yes we are stroller lovers!
We have been to the parks at least once if not 2-3 times every year and we are really trying not be commandos these days. We too don't stay all day at one park and break midday for a pool and relax and go back in the evening.
Furthermore we don't bring a lot of stuff, but the backpack and the water bottles and the ponchos ride a lot lighter in the stroller than on my back. Our youngest is 6 now and we plan to bring strollers for at least a few more years.
In fact we took a cruise last year and didn't have the stroller along for our shore excursions and boy that backpack got heavy afler a few hours. We finally figured out, "hey we are supposed to carry this thing on our backs? Where's the stroller?"
I know we are being a bit wimpy but we thought right then how we would miss the stroller when the time came at WDW. I figured when our kids would no longer ride in a stroller 15-17?? (ha) then maybe we could get a cart for one of us.
Why heft it when you can roll it?

 

[mbb]

$8/single...$15/double...and you get a Disney dollar back at the receipt/stroller turn in point. If you want to go to another park, leave the stroller (anywhere, really ) KEEP YOUR RECEIPT in a safe PLACE, head to the other park, got to the stoller rental location, get a new stroller. At the end of the day, return stroller, present receipt, and voila, a little $ back...which your child will promptly want to spend at the vendor directly behind you! You can ask to get back regular dollars...wouldn't recommend this if the lines are long! Take the funny money and go!

We rented double for the first am for our twins at the MK, and returned it for two singles (and our sanity!) after about an hour! The other benefit to this was not having to navigate the big rig through the crowds...most days the CM's gave us the two singles for the same price as the double - only saving a buck...we must have looked desperate!

 

[mbb]

When you rent the stroller, they write your name on a card that says something like "this stroller is being used by the ____Family today" in marker, and it hangs on the back of the stroller. You can add a "personal" item to it to help in stroller id. We'd leave a water bottle with stickers on it, something you don't mind to lose if someone "inadvertantly takes" your stroller. This only happened to us once, deep in MGM, a CM gave us one out of a stash so we didn't have to go all the way back to Oscars.

Enjoy!

 

[zurgswife]

zurg and I definatley are stroller lovers....we don't do commando but with older kids we definately still spend a large amount of time in the parks...and usually multiple parks in one day. The youngest is 6 and it is great for us to pack our stuff...(water, snacks, cameras, video bag, rain ponchos if cloudy)....This is probably the last trip with a stroller...but maybe not...she is fairly small compared to her siblings ...maybe we could stretch one more trip...

 

[Lesley]

We actually like going without a stroller at all....but sometimes we need it. We carry a backpack with our ponchos, camera equipment (helps to have a very small digital video camera...the old VHS camera feels huge now!), water (when its hot), and usually a baby sling or my baby trekker carrier. My 3yo really can't walk the whole time, but as long as I have a carrier I can handle carrying her when she's too tired. But we generally only do that if we'll only be in the parks a couple of hours. If we're planning a long day in the parks we either take our own stroller....or sometimes rent the double.

Since the kids aren't twins the double actually seems to make my dd want to be in it more (because she can sit with her big brother) and it makes it so much easier to get the kids from one place to the next...particularly when its crowded. And its nice not having to carry the backpack!

What's really nice these days though...is that our oldest is getting big enough to carry the backpack sometimes!

 

[skelooch]

VMS;
Where do you get strollers off site, do they deliver them to your resort, or do you have to pick them up.
What are the rates?
Where do you leave them at or resort or do you bring them to your room?

Thanks

 

[flexsmom]

There's a thread on the Budget Board about a DIS "community" stroller. Someone bought an Eddie Bauer stroller - very nice - and depending on when you're going you can put your name on the list and do a turnover with whoever has it before you. There's a bag attached with "goodies" for the stroller-kids, (of course, you have to add to the bag) and pictures of the parade of people using it. Might want to check it out!

 

[VMS]

We have rented from Kids in Safety Seats a number of times through the years. They are not far from the airport on the way to WDW. We usually pick it up and bring it back ourselves to save on the delivery fee. One time we did do the delivery service, and they did pick up and deliver to the room. The cost for the stroller was less than $30 for the whole week, and as I mentioned earlier, there were times when we were not in the parks that we really appreciated having a stroller available. I guess the downside would be that if something went wrong with the stroller you would not get a replacement as immediately as if you would if you rented it at one of the parks. We never in all the times we rented from them ever had a problem with our rental though.