Ok Ok, I'm sorry to keep bugging all of you but your expierience and opinons are truely valued! We have never had to plan such a vacation with our DD and I would love to make I plan and research enough to have a smooth trip! :)

I had heard that instead of having to drag your own stroller along you can rent a stroller if you are staying onsite for the duration of your stay...however the stipulation of this was that you had to check the stoller back in before leaving the parks... is this true?
With that in mind, Im wondering then if I should just go ahead and bring our DD's umbrella stroller so that she will continually have one when touring other resorts and DTD?? :confused:

I believe you can rent strollers at each park,at or near the opening of each park. We went for the first time when our kids no longer needed a stroller, think our youngest was 5 at the time - so I don't have direct experience with renting them. I've seen the WDW ones enough though - they have "tops" that hang over your kid to shade them from the sun if needed. If I'm not mistaken, the stroller rental transfers from park to park.

Good luck!

Strollers cost $7 per day. You return them at the end of the day and get $1 back. If you hop to another park you can show your receipt and get a new stroller at that park. I think it is best to bring your own, it not only saves you money but you have it to use at the resort (which is sometimes a long walk to bus stop,food court,etc. ) and downtown disney. Plus, you don't have to wait in line to rent or return one.

Our last trip, we were going to do the "renting" route and we happened to run into our neighbors at WDW. They were departing when we were arriving and they told us to take their umbrella stroller for our 3 year old.

We were VERY happy we did! We used it every day and it was very easy to fold up if needed...umbrella strollers are light and convenient, especially for a tired child.

We were taking our then five year old granddaughter to Disney World for the first time. Everyone was doing the stroller debate. Do we take one or not? She didn't have one at home but I knew how much walking was involved. So I bought a very inexpensive easily folding umbrella stroller at Toys R Us for $20.

That thing was invaluable in and outside the parks. Yes, you can rent strollers at each of the parks. And yes, you have to turn them in before you leave and you can't get them until you go through the turn styles. So any time you aren't in the parks, there is no stroller. The umbrella one was ideal. We didn't need it most of the time but it was so lightweight that pushing it around empty was easy. And when we did need it, it was easy. We did a walk around Crescent Lake our first day waiting to meet up with the great-grandparents and the granddaughter was very tired from her day. If we didn't have the umbrella stroller, we would have been miserable.

I got a cheap tacky looking bandanna from the Dollar Store and tied that around one of the handles of the stroller. At no time did we feel like someone was going to walk off with the stroller.

Take your own!

We have a decent, and I mean that in every sense of the word, (meaning it gets my daughter from point a to b) but the only reason I am not too thrilled about it is that it has no cover...I think I may just pick a new one up along the same lines as her old one but with a cover... :confused:

We have a decent, and I mean that in every sense of the word, (meaning it gets my daughter from point a to b) but the only reason I am not too thrilled about it is that it has no cover...I think I may just pick a new one up along the same lines as her old one but with a cover... :confused:

Jeep makes one that has slightly taller handles and a cover around $30 that was priceless with my son. He is a 4 year old who was still quite comfortable in it.

one thing you must be careful with the rented strollers.

a couple of times we have had people steal our rented stroller. we come out of a ride and there's no stroller. A CM told us this happens all the time. he even pointed to a stroller that had no name tag on it. he said that one was probably stolen from somebody else, and that if he didn't see some one claim it shortly they would be taking it down MS. he told us to go back to MS and show them our reciept and they would give us another. all nice, but every inconvenient. it was then we decided to start bringing our own. but now we don't need one...

but if I ever catch someone stealing a stroller I will make a big stink about it :mad:

Here are some stroller tales:

1. We went to Hershey Park, PA and in our stroller (we owned) we left some toys my husband won for our then at the time 2 year old daughter. When we returned from eating dinner, someone stole all the toys out of our stroller...how bad is that??? :mad:

2. In WDW, we went on a ride and returned to our stroller, which was not there...that was a scary feeling, but we quickly learned that a CM was arranging them neatly and moved ours. They arrange the strollers like a parking lot...so remember that if it does happen to you.

3. If you do go during a rainy season ie; September...remember that you may go on a ride and come out to find that it has rained. Putting your child in a soaked stroller is no fun so from now on, we covered our stroller in a poncho just in case.

;)

To save ourselves a little money and to make getting through the airports easier...we borrowed my best friends little fold up umbrella stroller. If she would not have had one, I would have spent the $10-$15.00 at walmart if I had had to since it would have cost me a lot more to rent one for the length of time we were there. Like I said, it made getting through the airport easier and faster, checking them in while getting onto the planes was a breeze, getting it after- well it was always waiting for us, unfolded (thank you airport workers :)), and it was easy to take with us on the buses and all that all around WDW. I would not have taken the big one that I have since gotten rid of since she now hates strollers and only likes wagons, but I would not hesitate to tak an umbrella stroller again, although, when we go again, late next year, she may be too big for one (she will be 5) since we had to keep telling her to keep her feet up since they would drag on the ground when she was 2 going on 3! Oh well, at 5 she can walk anyways...or bounce like she did all night during the MNSSHP!

We have a decent, and I mean that in every sense of the word, (meaning it gets my daughter from point a to b) but the only reason I am not too thrilled about it is that it has no cover...I think I may just pick a new one up along the same lines as her old one but with a cover... :confused:

I do not know if you are thinking about the sun getting to your little one or not but ours did not have a cover,instead I just kept sunblock on my daughter, she had her own little sunglasses (check Walmart- they have tons of cute Disney child size glasses), and I bought her a princess hat (fisherman style) right when we got there so she could wear that to keep the sun off of her face as well. I also made sure to make my then 8 year old wear his "safari" style hat since he burns easily and it is hard to keep sunblock on him since he has allergic reactions to nearly every sunblock I have ever tried.

Kadiehl,

When are you planning on going next year? We are tossed between 1st week in October or 2 week in December...sorry to change the subject...

Kadiehl,

When are you planning on going next year? We are tossed between 1st week in October or 2 week in December...sorry to change the subject...

First week to week & 1/2 of December. Once I am closer to being able to book our trip we will decide the dates for sure. We want to avoid Thanksgiving due to higher air fares (I am assuming this as of right now since I can not price flights that far ahead) but we want to go when it is slower and all decorated for the holidays :) I am a christmas nut and after being there for Halloween, my husband said, "we might as well go back to see it all done up for another holiday". Like I said, being a Christmas fanatic, that made my heart melt. That is why we are not going next spring but rather waiting till December 2006 :crying: But seeing it all done up for Christmas and being able to go to the Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party will be SO worth it :)

I also made sure to make my then 8 year old wear his "safari" style hat since he burns easily and it is hard to keep sunblock on him since he has allergic reactions to nearly every sunblock I have ever tried.
Sorry to derail a little more - but have you checked out sunscreens that don't have aloe in them? My youngest sister is allergic to the aloe :(

I do not know if you are thinking about the sun getting to your little one or not but ours did not have a cover,instead I just kept sunblock on my daughter, she had her own little sunglasses (check Walmart- they have tons of cute Disney child size glasses), and I bought her a princess hat (fisherman style) right when we got there so she could wear that to keep the sun off of her face as well. I also made sure to make my then 8 year old wear his "safari" style hat since he burns easily and it is hard to keep sunblock on him since he has allergic reactions to nearly every sunblock I have ever tried.

Thats what we have to do now and though for the first most part she does well, you can tell that the sun is getting to her...not only that but with the unpredictability (sp?) of the weather (as far as rain is concerend) I think I would feel better with a cover on her? She can also don a pancho if needed for when she isnt in the stroller (not to mention to make sure the stroller stays dry! thnks tappenfeat!)
The hat idea is good idea no matter what though becuase she obviously cant be in the stroller all the time (nor will she want to be!) and it will make waiting in line much more enjoyable! ;)

Thats what we have to do now and though for the first most part she does well, you can tell that the sun is getting to her...not only that but with the unpredictability (sp?) of the weather (as far as rain is concerend) I think I would feel better with a cover on her? She can also don a pancho if needed for when she isnt in the stroller (not to mention to make sure the stroller stays dry! thnks tappenfeat!)
The hat idea is good idea no matter what though becuase she obviously cant be in the stroller all the time (nor will she want to be!) and it will make waiting in line much more enjoyable! ;)

My daughter is Princess everything so she made sure she kept the hat on at all times because she loved it! It had all of the princesses on it with their names embroidered on it as well. She still wears it all of the time.

As far as weather. I planned on getting a poncho if we needed it. I had taken ours back from our first trip and figured she would want one like her brother's if the need arose for one. But, we lucked out, it did not rain on our second trip at all...instead it was unseasonably hot for the days we were there in late October. But, the rain in January was heavenly in our eyes as well, when we boarded the plane that trip, it was 14 degrees below zero and snowing..so 60 and rain was a blessing!

One other thing that kept her amused was the PAL MICKEYS you can buy. We love ours and plan on taking it back next trip to have it updated...they really keep the kids amused with the jokes they tell and so on....even though the jokes can get old after a while when you are hearing Mickey AND your child tell them over and over...LOL...definitely worth the money in my opinion. :)

Drince...thanks for the idea on the Sunscreen...I never thought about that. This child has super sensitive skin, thank goodness his sister does not. He breaks out from city water as well....treated water with chlorine in it and so on but he is fine in pools :confused: He had a rash the entire time we were on vacation from the water from taking showers. We have well water so none of us are use to drinking or bathing in treated municipal waters.

SunFun, How old is your child? If she likes to take naps then a full stroller is still worth considering because our son gets so tired from the day of fun that we have been so grateful we had a stroller he could sleep in (covered and reclined). Also, if you have to carry bags of things with you it sure is nice to have a stroller to put them on.


It's a hassle getting on/off the buses but that is pretty much the only place we really cursed having our stroller with us. Not because the bus driver won't wait but because after you wait in line for the bus, if people see you start folding up a stroller at the door they just start pouring onto the bus ahead of you and you rarely have a seat left. Sad but true.

That's the only time in WDW where we really ran into the rudest people! It's like a race to get onto the bus, nevermind who's been waiting there the longest...they have pushed us out of the way to get on...

Funny how when you get on/off the monorail that it seems to run smoother... :rolleyes: go figure...

But, yes...it's true about folding up the stroller to get onto the bus, they don't make you fold up your stroller to get onto the monorail.

Ooooooo! By the way, I see you are leaving in 10 days! :D

SunFun, How old is your child? If she likes to take naps then a full stroller is still worth considering because our son gets so tired from the day of fun that we have been so grateful we had a stroller he could sleep in (covered and reclined). Also, if you have to carry bags of things with you it sure is nice to have a stroller to put them on.


It's a hassle getting on/off the buses but that is pretty much the only place we really cursed having our stroller with us. Not because the bus driver won't wait but because after you wait in line for the bus, if people see you start folding up a stroller at the door they just start pouring onto the bus ahead of you and you rarely have a seat left. Sad but true.

Our daughter will have just turned 4 when we go...she will fall asleep in her umbrella stroller but i feel bad cause sometimes she looks uncomfortable! Alas however, I have her use her "blankie" as a pillow and I wheel her at a bit of a reclined manner and she sleeps fine...
I appreciate the bus tip...It's odd how people can be so rude! :)

Our daughter will have just turned 4 when we go...she will fall asleep in her umbrella stroller but i feel bad cause sometimes she looks uncomfortable! Alas however, I have her use her "blankie" as a pillow and I wheel her at a bit of a reclined manner and she sleeps fine...
I appreciate the bus tip...It's odd how people can be so rude! :)

That's what my husband and I would do. We would just ball her blanket into a ball (we took a few blankets with us so that if we lost one, there would still be one in backup)- one day we left it in the hotel room- she used the pal mickey as a pillow on her own. When she knew she was sleepy, she just put him there and fell asleep- his vibrating and talking never woke her up :) We too wheeled her around sort of tilted back so she was reclined. It was still easier than taking our big ole' stroller or renting one. She did not suffer at all. It was cute- she took a nap nearly every day in her stroller and we would just snack then or the guys would go on rides that I did not want to go on that were too old for her. Plus, she fell asleep every night in the stroller waiting for our bus back to our resort or she would fall asleep on the bus. She never saw us enter our room at night :)

awww, thats sooo cute...

Thats how I envision our trip going actually... ;)

Personally I don't like renting a stroller and would rather have my own.

If you want a stroller during your stay in Florida but don't want to bring one on the plane, consider this company:

http://www.babysaway.com/


They have full size strollers, tandems, jogging strollers and other baby items you might need. They deliver to where you're staying and pick up when you're through. What's also nice is there would be no need to return it at the end of the day (or if you wanted to hop between parks) like you would if you rented a stroller at WDW.

While I personally haven't used them (no need to...yet), I've heard good things about them. I don't know what the cost is, but I do know that they have a franchise in Orlando.

Just another option to consider... :)

HTH!