I am planning a trip in October with my son who will be 1 and a half and my 2 neices. I was curious if Disneyland has double strollers avaliable to rent. My son is very outgoing and adventurous, the 4 yr old is shy and clingy and the 8 yr old is outgoing also, I a afraid I won't be able to find a happy medium as far as rides and attractions go. Also does anyone have any tips and ideas about going to the park with small kids, this will be my fitst visit to DLR with children, I have been many times before however! Thanks in advance!

I would go to the parenting in the parks column and search for Adrienne's stoller columns (there are a couple of them) She talks about taking your own stroller, as well as what the rentals are like.

Also, learn how to use the baby switch passes! When you get to an attraction, ask the CM at the beginning of the queue to give you a baby switch pass. Let hubby and the 8-year old (and 4 for some attractions) stand in line while you and the infant go get a coke. When they come out, you take the pass and go in the exit (with the 8 year old again, who will love ya for this!) to go on the ride. Come to think of it, Adrienne might have a column on this one too.

Thanks for the plugs, Morrigoon!

Here is the link to my section of MousePlanet: Parenting in the Parks (http://www.mouseplanet.com/akrock/)

I did not directly link to the stroller columns because there are two of them. The ones for Disneyland are near the bottom of the list. To quickly answer your question, however, no, Disneyland does not rent double strollers. (They do in Orlando, not in Anaheim.)

I do explain Rider Switch in my column, Magic Year One ( )
You say that your son is outgoing and adventurous, but I'll ask you how familiar he is with amusement parks. My son is generally outgoing and adventurous and he's been visiting Disneyland at least once a month since he was 3 weeks old. Even then, there are a few rides that he started to be very wary of once he was about 18-24 months old.

I think you may find that the 4 y/o and your son may be at just about the same speed. I do think that they will be less adventurous than the 8 year old. I would advise using rider switch passes. While the rest of your party rides the faster or more adventurous rides, you and possibly another adult could take your son and the 4 year-old on tamer rides. Occasionally splitting your group, if that's possible, may be a good choice. Family radios are helpful for keeping in communication while you're split (Yes, I have a column up about those, too.)

Another advantage of splitting up is that those young kids often like repetition. So you may end up going on "Favorite" rides over and over again. This is a good argument for "trading off" if some adults get tired of those rides quicker than the kids do!

These are some thoughts off the top of my head. I know that we have other posters here who take young kids to Disneyland regularly and I hope they'll have more suggestions, too!

Adrienne K