My husband and I are travelling to DL April 22 - 30 with our 4 year old daughter.

I have seen the photos online of the stroller wars/congestion, so I hesitate bringing a stroller or renting one.

We'll be staying at the HoJo by Mimi's and wonder what people think. Is it worth going to Walmart and getting a cheapy stroller or renting one, or is it better to skip it and be more carefree?

Thanks.

My two cents worth -- bring a cheapo umbrella stroller. That way if she gets tuckered out you have the option of letting her ride, but if you're trapped in a huge crowd you can fold it up and it really won't be too cumbersome. The walk to Hojo's isn't bad at all, but after a full day in the park you may need it.
You can always fold it up and park it for part of the day when she's full of energy.

I bring my good stroller and yesterday gave me another example of exactly WHY I do it:

I saw a family with a jogging type stroller with a broken wheel. It was a double, too, so they couldn't even rent a double to replace it.

Adrienne

I agree with annie and bring an umbrella-type stroller. Do not rent one because you will most need the stroller on the walk back to HoJo and you can't do that with a rental. You could also do a long day with the stroller and then a shorter day without?

My 4yo is a pretty good walker, but I do need to pace her otherwise I carry her all the way to the parking structure. Ugh!

Have a great time!! Send us a trip report too.

We usually bring two umbrella stollers, well we did until this last trip when our 5 yr old just got too big. We find having a place for an exhausted toddler is invaluable. Especially if you have the walk to the HoJo. We liked it better than bringing our heavy duty one because of it's lightweight nature and the size it could collapse to. We had never opted for a park rental because we tend to make our trips long ones and it just isn't cost effective. On our trip in June, both of our umbrella strollers along with our sweat shirts and a blanket and snacks were stolen. We ended up finding one of them on the bridge over Pirates, but the mesh bag had been ripped off. I am straying from my point... Disney offered us a stroller to use on our last day. Wow, they are so easy to push, and you can easily get a replacement if someone swipes it. So I guess my point is I like both, but definitely a stroller!

if you get a cheapy stroller, they are often too short, hard to steer and we actually have had one rip to pieces because our daughter was to big for the stated weight requirements. We stayed at HOJO twice recently and bought a Maclaren Volo umbrella stroller for the trips, because the weight limit is 55 pounds and they have taller handles and a removable sun shade. Our 5 year old loved to be able to rest her legs when she needed to- plus the Volo has a shoulder strap so you can also carry it folded if neccessary. The stroller congestion is an annoying reality... but just imagine how many screaming kids there would be if every kid under 5 had to walk all around the park all day?
Oh, we also really liked having the stroller because the road by HOJO is so busy with pedestrians, we didn't have to worry about our daughter holding peolpe up.
Just a tip- don't cross the road right in front of disneyland- use the cross walk right by HOJO when you are going to and retuning from the park. Considerably faster!

if you get a cheapy stroller, they are often too short, hard to steer and we actually have had one rip to pieces because our daughter was to big for the stated weight requirements. We stayed at HOJO twice recently and bought a Maclaren Volo umbrella stroller for the trips, because the weight limit is 55 pounds and they have taller handles and a removable sun shade. Our 5 year old loved to be able to rest her legs when she needed to- plus the Volo has a shoulder strap so you can also carry it folded if neccessary. The stroller congestion is an annoying reality... but just imagine how many screaming kids there would be if every kid under 5 had to walk all around the park all day?
Oh, we also really liked having the stroller because the road by HOJO is so busy with pedestrians, we didn't have to worry about our daughter holding peolpe up.
Just a tip- don't cross the road right in front of disneyland- use the cross walk right by HOJO when you are going to and retuning from the park. Considerably faster!

I LOVE my Maclaren Volo, AKA "The $100 stroller". It was worth every single penny. My independent 2 year old does not always want to be confined to her stroller but sometimes, she has no choice. In the moments we allow her to run free, I can fold it up and carry it on my back and it really is no problem at all! I can even carry it on my back unfolded!! LOVE IT!!!! Am looking forward to having this stroller with me at DL next week.

Stroller! Definitely... and take your own, you're going to want it on your walks back to Hojo each night.

Gotta agree with Wendi on this one. Our 4 year old didn't need the stroller at all in the parks - but it was the walk back to the hotel that it became a blessing to have. If you rent one you are going to end up carrying your child back to the hotel - and no matter how long or short of a walk it is a 4 year old can get VERY heavy. Especially after a full day of walking in the park itself ...

I Say take a stroller. Just relax and enjoy yourself and don't worry about the crowd. Yes it is harder to move a stroller through a crowd but if you just take your time and don't get frustrated it will be fine. Sure he may bump someone if this happens just apologize ( do not bump and then push through them! ). Also there is a good chance some one will see you walking and run out in front of you and get themselves hit and get all upset about thier mistake and blame you just apologize and move on enjoying yourself and disneyland.


I would gather that just as many stroller accidents are caused by the non stroller people. It is super funny to see how people always react with it had to be the other persons fault ( i have this fault somethimes too.) , But at disneyland I tend to be a lot more relaxed.

Take your own stroller definetly. We always stay at HoJo's and that walk back to the room at the end of a long busy Disneyland day would be torture on a 4yo, or the person who has to carry her.

I took my full size Peg Perego last year on a crowded day and it was fine. We easily found parking space outside rides, nothing was stolen, although I was sort of nervous every time we left it. We didn't run anyone over in the crowds either.
Full size or umbrella, whatever you choose.

Relax? Yea right! Let's see.... We were there for 6 days and we took our own strollers.
Day 1: Both cheapy strollers stolen. (hmmm.. this is DL and somebody had to have to taken it by accident) Had to leave park to get rental strollers from DL at $7 a piece.

Day 2: Got up early and went to Wal-Mart purchased two more strollers at $20 a piece. At DL strollers stolen within the two hours of being in park. Again had to leave the park to rent strollers for $7 a piece.

Day 3: no problems

Day 4: DL strollers stolen at mid afternoon. (again it must have been an accident, yea right the magic is now gone in trusting others) We were told by the people at the gate that if we left the park we could not get in because of the crowd limit. Decided to bag DL since lines were 2 hour waits.

Day 5: Strollers stolen 3 times. Each time it was a 30 min walk to the main gate. This time the staff at the gate were kind enough to send someone over to the stroller rental to get us others. Again, this was more fun than what a person should be able to have.

Day 6: I got smart and we will be there the whole time that you are there Joy. We went early to Wal-Mart and purchased a chain and lock for our strollers. We parked the strollers back to back and chained them together when a railing was not available. No problems that day! :~D

We spent $80 on cheap strollers and then $14 a day for rented strollers. If you do not bring a lock and key for your strollers then you are crazy! Bring your own stroller and bring a lock and key because it is a pain in the butt to walk across the park to get another stroller when someon jacks it from you. We even got a couple of diapers and put water in them and melted choclate and put the diapers on the seat to try and deter people from taking them. But people took them.

Oh yea, be forewarned that there are idiots that will walk in front of you as you are pushing your stroller. They will cut you off and stop and it doesn't matter how slow or fast you go, the idiots will do this and then glare at you for running into them when they cut you off. Don't say sorry, ask them why they cut in front of you.

Relax? Yea right! Let's see.... We were there for 6 days and we took our own strollers.

Which trip was this? In August 2004 you said (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=428416&highlight=stroller#post428416) that you never bring your own strollers because you saw the lady who had her stroller stolen.

Then you had the incident in October 2004 (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=480607&highlight=stroller#post480607) when someone stole the stroller you rented from Disney and took your $100 sunglasses. (There's lots of posts referencing (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=657794&highlight=stroller#post657794) that incident, those are just two of them.)

Then last August (2005) (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=703505&highlight=stroller#post703505) you said that a year earlier you lost a $150 stroller that you brought from home with $66 worth of stuff in it.

In December (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=778110&highlight=rent%2A+stroller#post778110) you were suggesting still that your own stroller had been stolen but you were still saying that you rent two strollers a day rather than bringing your own.

In January you said that your strollers were stolen 4 times in 6 days. I asked for clarification (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?p=791487&highlight=stroller#post791487) then but you must not have seen my question.

Now you bought $80 worth of cheap umbrella strollers that were stolen? And counting there were 4 days when your strollers were stolen but they were taken 6 times total?

Forgive me for being skeptical.

Adrienne

I have gone several times to DLR over the last two years including two trips to WDW and have always taken my own stroller. (knock on wood, but the parked stroller has always been where we left it when we return to it.)

Relax? Yea right! Let's see.... We were there for 6 days and we took our own strollers.
Day 1: Both cheapy strollers stolen. (hmmm.. this is DL and somebody had to have to taken it by accident) Had to leave park to get rental strollers from DL at $7 a piece.

Day 2: Got up early and went to Wal-Mart purchased two more strollers at $20 a piece. At DL strollers stolen within the two hours of being in park. Again had to leave the park to rent strollers for $7 a piece.

Day 3: no problems

Day 4: DL strollers stolen at mid afternoon. (again it must have been an accident, yea right the magic is now gone in trusting others) We were told by the people at the gate that if we left the park we could not get in because of the crowd limit. Decided to bag DL since lines were 2 hour waits.

Day 5: Strollers stolen 3 times. Each time it was a 30 min walk to the main gate. This time the staff at the gate were kind enough to send someone over to the stroller rental to get us others. Again, this was more fun than what a person should be able to have.

Day 6: I got smart and we will be there the whole time that you are there Joy. We went early to Wal-Mart and purchased a chain and lock for our strollers. We parked the strollers back to back and chained them together when a railing was not available. No problems that day! :~D

We spent $80 on cheap strollers and then $14 a day for rented strollers. If you do not bring a lock and key for your strollers then you are crazy! Bring your own stroller and bring a lock and key because it is a pain in the butt to walk across the park to get another stroller when someon jacks it from you. We even got a couple of diapers and put water in them and melted choclate and put the diapers on the seat to try and deter people from taking them. But people took them.

Oh yea, be forewarned that there are idiots that will walk in front of you as you are pushing your stroller. They will cut you off and stop and it doesn't matter how slow or fast you go, the idiots will do this and then glare at you for running into them when they cut you off. Don't say sorry, ask them why they cut in front of you.

I hate to offend you but I don't believe this story for a minute. I parked a $300 Peg Perego stroller at DLR for 3 complete days in early March, left my video camera, in plain site, in the basket of it, on several occasions, along with my son's KSwiss tennis shoes, and his pirate gun laying in the seat, NOTHING was stolen that entire time. I haven't been to DLR without a stroller, in 5 years now, other than once, and I have NEVER had a stroller stolen, nor have I known anyone who has. I believe it happens, but I don't believe it happens like you have described above. I also believe people tend to forget where they park their stroller.

Regarding OP's post: Definitely bring your own stroller. That walk back to Hojo, while only a short 7-10 minutes, will be hard if you have to carry your child all the way back. We've always brought our strollers to the park and it definitely helped at the end of the day with tired kiddos. It also provided a nice place to store souvenirs so we didn't have to carry it around w/ us all the time. We use a Maclaren side-by-side stroller that we find very convenient and easy to maneuver around the DLR, even on busy days.

I noticed that there was some discussion about stolen strollers. I've posted about our experience here on MP before, so for some this will be the same old story. We had our original Maclaren SBS stroller stolen last Labor Day weekend. Checked with Lost and Found every single day we were at the park and it was never returned.

Having a stroller stolen is not a pleasant experience to go through, but it hasn't discouraged us from bringing our replacement Mac SBS stroller to the parks. We just use a cable lock now when we leave it. Takes a bit longer to load and unload the kids, but for us, it's worth it. Odds are that it won't happen again, but we don't want to be in the position to have to purchase another stroller, LOL! Gives us peace of mind and I'm happy to report that we've been back to the DLR a few times since last Labor Day, and we still have our stroller. :)

once again I still think that marking strollers be it a cheap or expensive one with some clearly identifying mark helps , there are only so many stroller manufactures out in in this world so many people have the same ones most likely if someone takes it , its a matter of thinking its theirs ( now come on how many people just steal a stroller to lug around?)
I personally perfer a lighter weight easy to fold cheapie , since i am no a Houdini at folding one up , slow Grammie here...
Use a bright colored scarf or cut down bike flag to ID your stroller, believe me no one wants a stroller just to push through the crowds.

I noticed that there was some discussion about stolen strollers. I've posted about our experience here on MP before, so for some this will be the same old story. We had our original Maclaren SBS stroller stolen last Labor Day weekend. Checked with Lost and Found every single day we were at the park and it was never returned.

And to be sure, I have no doubt that strollers are sometimes stolen at Disneyland, I just find some stories really suspicious.

I've had a few conversations with Cast Members about this. I think that the really great lesson of your story, mm0003, is that you still prefer to take your own stroller than convert to rentals, even with your experience!

What I have learned from talking to CMs is that many strollers are stolen for the contents of the basket. So I am most careful to remove the important stuff before I leave my stroller anywhere. I also try to park defensively to try to at least make my stroller less accessible. I still believe that the odds are in my favor. Thousands of people bring strollers every day.

My very favorite mostest awesome stroller in the lightweight category is my Maclaren Triumph. It's not a cheapie but it's lightweight, has an awesome basket and not only does it fold up easily, it has a strap that I can put it over my shoulder to carry it!

But my favorite in the parks stroller is still my Peg Perego Tender. Yeah, that's not cheapie either. I'm such a stroller name-dropper. I'm really not a label shopper! They just happen to be awesome and really well made strollers.

Adrienne

For those of you using locks as theft deterrent how does that work when a CM needs to rearrange strollers, or are you just locking the wheels together? I'm considering this option as I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Do not lock a stroller to anything because that won't go over well with security at all. They'll cut the locks. There are two concerns: malicious intent and fire safety.

If you use the lock to attach the wheel to the strollers, the CMs can still move them if they need to but they will be a theft deterrant.

Adrienne

And to be sure, I have no doubt that strollers are sometimes stolen at Disneyland, I just find some stories really suspicious.

I've had a few conversations with Cast Members about this. I think that the really great lesson of your story, mm0003, is that you still prefer to take your own stroller than convert to rentals, even with your experience!

What I have learned from talking to CMs is that many strollers are stolen for the contents of the basket. So I am most careful to remove the important stuff before I leave my stroller anywhere. I also try to park defensively to try to at least make my stroller less accessible. I still believe that the odds are in my favor. Thousands of people bring strollers every day.

My very favorite mostest awesome stroller in the lightweight category is my Maclaren Triumph. It's not a cheapie but it's lightweight, has an awesome basket and not only does it fold up easily, it has a strap that I can put it over my shoulder to carry it!

But my favorite in the parks stroller is still my Peg Perego Tender. Yeah, that's not cheapie either. I'm such a stroller name-dropper. I'm really not a label shopper! They just happen to be awesome and really well made strollers.

Adrienne

I agree, Peg makes some of the best strollers out there.

But my favorite in the parks stroller is still my Peg Perego Tender. Yeah, that's not cheapie either. I'm such a stroller name-dropper. I'm really not a label shopper! They just happen to be awesome and really well made strollers. Adrienne

I agree, Peg makes some of the best strollers out there.

I also agree about Peg Perego strollers. We've had our PP Pliko since 2001 and it's still our "workhorse." We use and abuse it and it still keeps on going. I am going to be very sad when I have to retire it.