Yes, your stroller might be stolen...

[lilybrooke14]

I'm so sorry! It's wonderful that Disney helped you out a bit though. DH is really worried about our stroller being stolen, so last night I picked up some embroidered iron on letters at Hobby Lobby and ironed our last name onto an easily spotted part of the stroller. It was really easy, and hopefully will be a deterrent. If not.....well at least we don't have to worry about the airline tearing it up on the way home.

Hope the rest of your trip was wonderful.

 

[Shagley]

We were thinking of taking a bike lock for ours & someone said you can't use one in case they need to move it, but it sounds like it might be a good idea.

I've heard some people say that they lock the front wheels. That way the CM's can tip it and move it only using the back wheels, but it would be inconvenient to try to steal it and push a child around that way. I'm not sure if this is "allowed", but I think some have done it.

 

[TK Brown]

Sorry to hear about your stroller. But im glad Disney stepped up and tried to makes things as right as they could.

 

[tam626]

I've heard some people say that they lock the front wheels. That way the CM's can tip it and move it only using the back wheels, but it would be inconvenient to try to steal it and push a child around that way. I'm not sure if this is "allowed", but I think some have done it.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking. We are staying at FW, in a cabin. We are not renting a golf cart, so we NEED the stroller for our resort & can't afford for it to be stolen.

 

[thelindysix]

Sorry to hear about the stroller, but kudos to Disney for the way they handled it!! We've bought a stroller specifically to take to Disney with us in December, and I think I'll be marking it in some way so we can tell it apart from others. It is kind of a bright color (almost a lime green, and bought before I knew the significance of lime green to DISers!) so I don't think it will be a problem, but it was bought at Costco so you never know how many people will have it.

This did make me think of something else, though. I do plan on leaving my DS2's diaper bag in the bottom of it. It will just have diapers, wipes, sippy's, etc in it, but I think I'll throw an extra diaper or 2 & small pack of wipes into my bag or one of the older kids bags, just in case. I'd hate to have to scour the parks looking for a diaper for him if something happened to our stuff!

 

[mickeymaker2003]

You are allowed to lock the stroller to itself, just not to anything else. Locking the front wheels together so a cast member can still move it, but no one could really push it with a child in it is acceptable.

Another poster mentioned trying to find diapers in the parks. The Baby Care Centers sell diapers (I think their brand is Huggies). They aren't cheap, but they would get you through in a pinch. What they DON'T sell is a sippy cup with a valve in it to reduce spills. The only sippy cup available anywhere on Disney property has a sippy cup lid, but no valves, so if you tip it, the liquid streams out. My daughter lost her sippy cup on our last day (after we'd already checked our luggage with the extra 3 sippy cups we'd brought) and we looked everywhere to buy a replacement. Apparently sippy cups aren't sent to lost and found because they've been in someone's mouth, so there was no hope of getting it there either. The only one we could find had no valves in it and my daughter (18 months) couldn't use it because she is used to sucking to get it through the valve, so she chocked when too much came out since there was no valve to slow it down.

 

[bumbershoot]

We are taking our first family trip in November and I was mentioning to DH that I wanted to take an umbrella stroller for DD (4). He said he didn't want to take one for 2 reasons, fear of it being stolen with our stuff in it, and hassle of keeping track of it throughout the day. We haven't been anywhere with the kids recently that involved anywhere near the amount of walking that we'll do in Disney, so I'm betting we'll regret not bringing a stroller. Shouldn't I just stash a cheap umbrella stroller in the car just in case? I figure DH might change his mind once we're in the park for an entire day and he ends up carrying her when he's just as tired at the end of the day. I don't even want to tell him about your experience! He is so untrusting anyway...

I would take one.

But don't leave things in the stroller. Act as though you aren't bringing the stroller, and carry what you're bringing rather than relying on the stroller. As someone who has had things taken from a stroller, no matter the value of the items, it HURTS to know that someone has stolen from you. So don't leave stuff in the stroller.

 

[mickeysmyboy]

That's terrible! I'm so, so, sorry that happened to you and your family! But. I'm glad WDW came through! Your rightm those princess dresses are expensive

I'm definitely going to mark our stroller for our trip in January!

 

[mickeysmyboy]

We were thinking of taking a bike lock for ours & someone said you can't use one in case they need to move it, but it sounds like it might be a good idea.

I'm pretty sure your not allowd to lock it to anything because their are CM's who re-park the strollers all the time to maximize the parking area. I'm also pretty sure that they can and will cut the lock!

 

[dzorn]

I would lock the back wheels not the front. The CM could still tip it forward to move it but it would be difficult to push it a long distance that way. If someone wanted to take it with the front wheels locked they would just pop a wheelie and keep going.

Denise in MI

 

[t-beri]

at the risk of sounding redundant I am sorry to hear about your stroller but so glad that disney came to the rescue. How exciting it must have been to your girls to be whisked away to pick out brand new princess dresses!
Hope everyone enjoyed your MNSSHP!

 

[Jaymie]

I can't help but think what kind of example is this stroller thief showing their kids? "It's ok to take someone else's stroller because they obviously left it sitting here, unattended. No really, all these people are done with their stroller forever, let's pick our favorite and take it!"

One time when were leaving the Seas, in the rain, I sent my DH to get the stroller and he came back with one that didn't even look like ours. Needless to say, we put it back and I went to find ours!!

 

[*Seanaci*]

I can't help but think what kind of example is this stroller thief showing their kids? "It's ok to take someone else's stroller because they obviously left it sitting here, unattended. No really, all these people are done with their stroller forever, let's pick our favorite and take it!"

One time when were leaving the Seas, in the rain, I sent my DH to get the stroller and he came back with one that didn't even look like ours. Needless to say, we put it back and I went to find ours!!

Ditto that first paragraph.

And to the OP, thanks for the heads up on marking the stoller ahead of time...we'll def do that.

 

[Whipperwhirl]

Do you think my antique stroller could be in danger or is it such and oddball that no one would dare? It only cost 50.00 but I wouldnt want to loose it.

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

Ouch!! That is why we wheel Rachel into all the restaurants in her wheelchair/stroller then park it at the table with us when we put her in her high chair. When the CM offers to wheel it outside for us we decline. It would cost $3,500.00 to replace it!! I just tell the CM that we may need it at any moment. I have seen the same wheelchair/stroller for sale on ebay, and would not want to wonder if my daughter's was being sold after it was stolen at WDW.

 

[dijid]

So sorry your stroller was stolen. And glad that you got some pixie dust from the CMs to help.

While we didn't have our stroller stolen, we did have the rain cover taken. I parked our stroller for a while at Epcot among a zillion others. It looked like rain and I was the only one to put a cover on. Came outside about an hour later and found no cover! Of course, it started to rain shortly after and I was just SOL. And you know whoever took it didn't feel any guilt knowing that someone else's child was soaking wet. Otherwise they wouldn't have done it in the first place.

 

[blessedby3]

So sorry your stroller was stolen. And glad that you got some pixie dust from the CMs to help.

While we didn't have our stroller stolen, we did have the rain cover taken. I parked our stroller for a while at Epcot among a zillion others. It looked like rain and I was the only one to put a cover on. Came outside about an hour later and found no cover! Of course, it started to rain shortly after and I was just SOL. And you know whoever took it didn't feel any guilt knowing that someone else's child was soaking wet. Otherwise they wouldn't have done it in the first place.

This happened to us too!! I put our stroller cover on while we went into Mickeys Philharmagic because it looked like it was going to rain. When we came out it hadnt started raining yet, but I couldnt find our stroller. I knew we should see it right away because of the shower curtain cover and I thought at first our stroller had been stolen! After looking at the sea of strollers I spotted ours minus the cover! I was not happy and couldnt believe that someone would just take something because they werent smart enough to bring one themselves. At least our stroller was still there, but I couldnt believe the nerve of some people. Wish I would have been coming our of the show and caught them. I would have given them an earful! Im sure they watched us go in though, and just took it off after we went inside.

 

[hardingk]

You are allowed to lock the stroller to itself, just not to anything else. Locking the front wheels together so a cast member can still move it, but no one could really push it with a child in it is acceptable.

How can you lock just the front wheels? Do they sell special locks for this?

Any suggestions of how I can mark our personal stroller as being ours?? We too bought one just for disney trips.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

How can you lock just the front wheels? Do they sell special locks for this?

Any suggestions of how I can mark our personal stroller as being ours?? We too bought one just for disney trips.

I think when people talk about locking the wheels, they are discussing bike locks or the like. Since this first happened to us, we are going to take a different approach. Locking the wheels would simply be a nightmare as often as you are in and out of the stroller. We have discovered a way to lock our new stroller open - keeping it from being able to be folded. Between marking it up and keeping anyone from being able to fold it onto a bus or in a car, we figure it will significantly increase our security. We may even put a sign on it that says it will not fold.

 

[TheRatPack]

Sorry that happened to you And that's an expensive stroller too....I would have been so upset. My shoulders still hurt from our trip in October, as I just couldn't leave anything on the stroller when we were away from it, so I carried it all. I had a travel purse, camera bag, and 2 tote bags most days. I even toted their clothing/costumes around during MNSSHP when we'd park the stroller to go on rides...etc. I'm so paranoid, not to mention we had a nice stroller we'd bought just for Disney too....so again, I would have been so upset. It's GREAT that Disney stepped up and helped you all out (even though you're still at a loss with the stroller).

Thanks for sharing the warning.