9/13/10 — My husband and I are taking our kids, ages 3 and 5, to Disney World in November. Should we bring our own stroller, or rent one there?
Answer:
Ah, the eternal question of strollers! I’ll give you my recommendation first, then some caveats.
I recommend using an umbrella stroller for use in the Disney Parks. Extremely lightweight and very compact, they are are maneuverable in crowds and convenient to take on Disney transportation, especially on the buses. In your case, I’d recommend bringing two — one for each kid. You may not think that the five year old will need one, but let me tell you that after a day of walking around in one of the theme parks you (and your 5 year old) will be very grateful that you brought the extra.
There’s a wide range of umbrella strollers available. You can go for the $15 one from WalMart or a $150 one from other places. Personally, I wouldn’t spend a fortune on an umbrella stroller, but I would buy one with a sun canopy, and maybe a pocket for storing rain ponchos, etc. You can find strollers like that for about $40 – $50.
To be fair, there are some who like to use their strollers as storage space and therefore find umbrella strollers too limited in space. My response to that is if you really need storage space, carry a backpack. There are also people who swear by the rented Disney strollers. Personally, I don’t think that they’re worth the money to rent them. Even if you don’t take into account the rental fees and the time it takes to pick them up when you get to a park, you then don’t have a stroller to use to get back to Disney transportation and hotel room, Downtown Disney, etc.
There are three more things that I would like to point out about strollers in general.
If you have an infant, you shouldn’t be using an umbrella stroller until he/she has adequate head and neck control, usually around 6 months of age.
If you are using one of those mega SUV strollers (I mean you, first time parents), please do yourself and everyone else a favor; leave it at home.
Whatever stroller you get, be sure to put something unique on it for easy identification in the sea of strollers parked outside attractions.
Comment by Kim Janssen:
Tuesday, September 14th 2010 at 10:17 pm |
We rented a double stroller from: http://www.magicstrollers.com/ for our then 3-year-old and 8-month-old. An advantage to renting a stroller outside the Disney realm is that one can take the stroller outside the parks. This worked great for us traveling to and from various Disney resorts!
Reply by The Mouse Planner
Great point, Kim! There are options for renting strollers from non-Disney sources. MagicStrollers.com is run by Owner’s Locker, which is an awesome service for frequent vacationers. Based on your comment, I take it that your stroller renting experience went really well. Could you give us some insight as to the overall renting process and the costs?
