Why not bring a stroller instead of renting one?

[Emily'sMom]

oh i am glad you liked the double stroller. i was worried i was going to regret that it was too big. the stroller in the swap i am participating on is a instep with swivel- so it sounds like the same thing.

 

[BostonRob]

Depends on the stroller. Some umbrellas ahd cup holders and baskets. The $40 WDW ones don't, but....

Just hang the bag off the handles. If you are on property, you can have stuff shipped to your room. You can even tie sweatshirts to the handles too.

As for the drink...some strollers have back pouches where you can stick one. If you are drinking a water bottle, you can stick it in the bag. You can also buy a small pouch to stick on the side. If you get one water bottle, you can reuse it and transfer any other beverages to it.

You sound like somebody that maybe hasn't used an umbrella stroller. If you hang something off the handls, as soon as your kid hops out, the whole thing flips over. And the other problem with them is you can't push them one handed - they pull madly toward the side of the handle you're holding.
Nope, no umbrella for me.
But I will agree with the point about the biggies being a pain in the butt on busses. If I do end up bringing a double, I'll either stay on the monorail (and suffer the busses half the time) and/or rent a car.

 

[deb24k]

Well, honestly, we are sucking it up and renting a double for the week. We don't own one, and with the price increase we seriously considered renting one from another company and having it shipped to the resort. However after much thought I'd rather pay the extra $100.00 at the parks verses the inconvenience of dragging a double on the busses with two tired children. For our family, the extra convenience is simply worth it on our vacation.

 

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

Well, honestly, we are sucking it up and renting a double for the week. We don't own one, and with the price increase we seriously considered renting one from another company and having it shipped to the resort. However after much thought I'd rather pay the extra $100.00 at the parks verses the inconvenience of dragging a double on the busses with two tired children. For our family, the extra convenience is simply worth it on our vacation.

My only suggestion is if your room is too far away from the busses, you may wish you had a stroller instead of carrying sleeping kids back to the room. Just a suggestion. You know what works for your family the best! Last year we rented (brought a single for the baby, rented a double for the 4yr old son and 5 yr old neice) and our rooms were SO FAR AWAY!! This year even though we had the double we paid for preferred! Will never go standard again!

 

[angikay30]

Well, honestly, we are sucking it up and renting a double for the week. We don't own one, and with the price increase we seriously considered renting one from another company and having it shipped to the resort. However after much thought I'd rather pay the extra $100.00 at the parks verses the inconvenience of dragging a double on the busses with two tired children. For our family, the extra convenience is simply worth it on our vacation.

Deb - I completely agree with everything you said. The convenience factor of renting the Disney strollers wins out in my opinion - not have to lug it on the plane, buses, and monorail. Not having to worry about theft... It's a vacation - the extra cost definitely hurts and I wish for last years rates - but the conveniences can not be beat.

 

[cam8n]

You sound like somebody that maybe hasn't used an umbrella stroller. If you hang something off the handls, as soon as your kid hops out, the whole thing flips over. And the other problem with them is you can't push them one handed - they pull madly toward the side of the handle you're holding.
Nope, no umbrella for me.
But I will agree with the point about the biggies being a pain in the butt on busses. If I do end up bringing a double, I'll either stay on the monorail (and suffer the busses half the time) and/or rent a car.

Umbrella strollers are great! They cost about 10$ at walmart and if it gets stolen....who cares it was only 10$.
I would never ever lug one of those big strollers around a park and on buses! I don't even think we are gonna bring a stroller this year with are three year old, he never uses one at home and if he does get tired...I will carry him
Exercise..exercise!..Its good for ya!

 

[deb24k]

"My only suggestion is if your room is too far away from the busses, you may wish you had a stroller instead of carrying sleeping kids back to the room. Just a suggestion. You know what works for your family the best! Last year we rented (brought a single for the baby, rented a double for the 4yr old son and 5 yr old neice) and our rooms were SO FAR AWAY!! This year even though we had the double we paid for preferred! Will never go standard again!"


Thank you for the thought. We considered this aspect as well. We are at the Wilderness Lodge which is not terribly spread out. Our children can be carried. As for the umbrella strollers, forget it. We brought one with us for our last trip when our daughter was 3. After 10 minutes in MK I left it near a trash barrel. You can't steer those things and lugging bags on them is next to impossible.

PS I appologize about my quote. I'm not sure if I've done it correctly.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Is that an umbrella style stroller? Those things are pretty useless because there's no place to store your stuff.

But that's not the purpose of a stroller - it's intended to transport a young/small child, not to act as a u-haul. Anyway, especially for people who don't have strollers to bring - wouldn't it still be more cost-effective to buy two? One for the child, and one for the "stuff"? Or just not bring so much to the parks that it can't be carried by hand or back?

 

[CampbellScot]

the strollers Disney has for rent are just so dang EASY to push. They magically decrease the weight of your kids by a lot!

the price increase stinks, no doubt, but the convenience and general ease of movement is worth the extra cost to us.

 

[msmayor]

I agree, I am not renting at those ridiculous prices. But my other problem is the airplane baggage restrictions. They are charging now for strollers as an "extra bag"-- granted only $25, but I am still annoyed.

So I did a little research on the DIS and found out about stroller swaps and joined an awesome one. Check out my links below-- for $10 you could get a double stroller for the whole trip!! There are other single and double stroller swaps also, just look on the Budget Forum, the first thread.

Those swaps will be fine until the strollers start going 'missing', just like the fridges.

I'd hate to be a family depending on finding a stroller waiting for me, and then finding out that its gone missing...and having to fork over big bucks to now rent one.

 

[jamstew]

But that's not the purpose of a stroller - it's intended to transport a young/small child, not to act as a u-haul. Anyway, especially for people who don't have strollers to bring - wouldn't it still be more cost-effective to buy two? One for the child, and one for the "stuff"? Or just not bring so much to the parks that it can't be carried by hand or back?

That's my thought as well. We'll probably end up buying two at Disney, but they'll both be used to haul children, not stuff. My DD and DDIL will probably both carry small backpacks, and anything we buy will be sent to the resort, so there's nothing to carry except a bottle of water on a lanyard. My DS and I will have our small camera cases which will hold a few odds and ends.

 

[jamstew]

For those of you flying, check the baggage regulations with your airline. We flew Continental last month and were surprised to find out that we could check our kids' car seats and stroller, and not have it count against our baggage limit. We were shocked that we could've brought 2 more pieces of luggage because their car seats didn't count! (We gate checked the stroller). I don't know if that is unique to Continental or if the other airlines have similar policies.

I don't know how many other airlines have the same policy, but SWA does (or at least they did a couple of years ago).

 

[richmond282]

We flew Allegiant Air and checked both our car seat and stroller for no cost and they didn't count towards our luggage either. It was nice to have the stroller outside the parks too.

 

[Mad-Jasper]

(my usual I'm sure this has been covered but the search function stinks disclaimer)

If a double stroller costs about $200 to rent for the week, why don't more people bring their own? Seems like a no-brainer to me. What am I missing

You are apparently missing the bus filled with people carrying strollers to the parks.

Our last trip was a real hassle when the buses were full. It would be great if the buses had additional storages for strollers but they don't.

Our DD is 8 so stroller rental is nearing a end anyway.

 

[zoie101]

heres hoping that my stroller swap last till we leave in december

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Umbrella strollers are OK if your kids fit in them. Mine don't. I'm hoping my 6-yr-old will be able to walk this year; I'm leaving the sit-n-stand stroller at home because he's too big for the jump seat. The toddler will be in a lightweight travel stroller.

 

[Nicoleclaw]

We bought a $40 stroller to use when dd was almost 2. We wanted something smaller than the mongo one we use at the mall and stuff. It wasn't a cheapo umbrella one, I did not want that for the possible lack of cup holder, snack tray, and basket. I think the brand is Safety1st. It folds up really easy, has a tray for you, and a snack tray with cup holder for the kid. It does have a basket, but that basket right now is barely big enough for our bag. With 2 kids, we need a change of clothes for both (dd likes to get car sick), meds and epipens for their food allergies, diapers, wipes, snacks (food allergies we need to bring our own), etc., it barely fits. I did buy those clips you can use to hang a bag on the handle. Works well, although the bag being that high makes the stroller tip over about half the time when I take the kid out...so I take the bag off and put it in the seat when it is empty. I understand a stroller is for the kid, not the bag , but you are already seating your butt off and pushing a stroller, who really wants to carry a bag? DD is almost 5 next month and the $40 stroller has held up better than her big $150 Graco one did. I wonder if they still sell this stroller. It really is so much better than the $10 umbrella one that I brought, those are a PAIN to steer (for weak ol' me anyway!). We also gate checked our stroller both times, (kinda scary when we saw them fold and chuck it under the plane from our seat! But it came out in one piece) but did not think of asking about gate checking the 2 car seats! Next time!

 

[BostonRob]

But that's not the purpose of a stroller - it's intended to transport a young/small child, not to act as a u-haul. Anyway, especially for people who don't have strollers to bring - wouldn't it still be more cost-effective to buy two? One for the child, and one for the "stuff"? Or just not bring so much to the parks that it can't be carried by hand or back?

Spoken like somebody who's either never had young childeren or who's forgotten what its like to have young children.
First off, if you have a kid in diapers, you need enough diapers and wipes and such to cover a whole day. And you need a change of clothes in case something goes catastrophically wrong (which happens more that you'd think especially when kids are eating foods they're not used to eating).

Second, your kids, whether in diapers or not require things that adults don't need. You alway have to bring a sweater or a jacket or something. Its easy for us adults to think, oh if it gets cold or it rains or whatever, I can deal with it. But when you've got young kids, you don't make them deal with it, you take care of them.

Third, you need snacks. Kids get hungry. Their little bodies have really fast metabolisms, and they're always running around and burning off extra engery anyway. If you want to buy a mickey bar between every meal, be my guest, but I'm going to pack in some cereal bars and bannanas and juice boxes because they need it and that's what I'd always do whether I'm at the beach or at disney world.

And you might be fine carrying around YOUR stuff in a backpack, but you're probably not carrying extra stuff for other small people, nor are you pushing said small people in a stroller or alternatively chasing them around, in which case a large full backpack may be overly burdensome.

This is why strollers come with so much storage. Kids require things that take up space.

 

[BostonRob]

You are apparently missing the bus filled with people carrying strollers to the parks.

Yeah, hopefully I am missing that. On my last trip (when my only daughter was 2) I rented a car and used it daily because I didn't want to be lugging that stroller onto and off of crowded busses at the most stressful times of day.
On my next trip I'm toying with the idea of staying in a monorail resort so I can just roll on and roll off the monorail. I know, some people will complain about me taking up so much monorail car space with my stroller, but I'll do my best to make room for everybody. If Disney had some rule about strollers on monorails I'd certainly follow it, but as long as they don't, I'll be as considerate as possible and hope that nobody is looking for something like a stroller on a monorail to ruin their day.

 

[Finally08]

I love the disney strollers, don't get wrong. I love that dd can jump in and out on her own. I love that it's really "roomy" for her (let's face it, on a hot day do you want to be wedged in a tight stroller?) - I love the big canopy and how easy they are to push. BUT - I HATE having to wait in line to get them (I get to wait enough at wdw) and I hate all the miles of walking you'll do from your resort until you get to the stroller rental. For that reason alone I will always bring my own stroller. We did one day last time where we rented a stroller - my gosh I thought we'd never make it there!