Renting strollers at Disney World
 

We're going to WDW next week and are wondering whether we're better off bringing our own strollers (we're flying) or rent them from Disney. Any opinions regarding their comfort, storage room, ability to recline? They're a bit expensive to rent but your thoughts may change my mind. Thanks!

Are you bringing the stroller anyway for other things? If you're not, I'd recommend the Disney Strollers. They are pretty standard, though, nothing fancy.

I don't think the Disney strollers recline but it's been a couple of years since I rented one. The strollers don't have much storage capacity.

Ask your question at www.disboards.com on the parks board or the families board and you will get lots of feedback.

We were there two years ago - at that point they didn't recline and they didn't have storage. I would take your own.

The advantage to renting is that you don't have to wrestle your strollers through airports and on shuttle buses. Also, the stroller rental is not cheap. According to allearsnet.com, they are $10/ day OR $8/day Length of Stay rental for a single stroller. Double strollers are $18/ day or $16/day length of stay rental. That can add up.

The nice thing is that you can drop it off at one park and pick up another at the next park, if you are park hopping. And, if anyone takes it, they will issue another stroller without hassle.

My cousins bought inexpensive umbrella strollers for our Disneyworld trip this June and those seemed to work very well.

Please be sure to have a touring plan. I've read that WDW got a much better response than expected for their fall promotion and that the parks have been VERY full.

We've used the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disneyworld's plans in the past and they were very good. It's a guidebook you can buy at Borders, Barnes & Noble etc. They offered a package that included the dining plan in with the Magic Your Way package and some resorts were even overbooked.

This June, we used an online subscription service called "Tour Guide Mike". It is about the price of a guidebook and there is a discount code on themouseforless.com (Save $3.00 when you type in A82E8-2AH as your Promo Code during checkout). It had very good articles and we never waited in line more than 20 minutes when we followed the touring plans.

Two very good websites are wdwinfo.com and allearsnet.com.

Since you said you are considering bringing your own strollers I assume you need more than one. The double stroller at Disney worked great for us for a 2 and 4 year old. However, towards the end of the afternoon someone decided to borrow it, even though we had it festooned with sparkly garland so we could quickly pick ours out of the crowd of 50 left outside the attraction. I would not bring an expensive one if you do decide to bring them. And as I stated, a bandana, garland, scarf or something like that is necessary as there are sometimes 100 strollers left outside a ride. They have cast members who will move them from the entrance over to the exit in some instances so they are ready for you when you depart, it depends upon the attraction. The problem we had with the 4 year old was that he wanted to ride in the stroller ALL the time and it became a battle to get him to see Characters, etc. Kids! But, won't youwant a stroller for times when you are at Downtown Disney, going to supper off property, etc? They are wonderful in the airport to shlep your carry-ons, etc.

I have heard even bigger kids tend to use strollers. I have a 6 yr old who would be appalled at using a stroller normally, but due to the fact that we will be doing so much walking, I am wondering if it's a good idea.

YOur thoughts?

The average active 6 year old will have no problem with walking around the parks all day.

Parking and finding the stroller at every attraction takes up a lot of time (the CMs move the stroller fromthe entrances to the exits of the rides) over the course of a day. Also, you won't be able to move through the crowds as quickly with a stroller. We were amazed at how many more rides and attractions we were able to do in a day once we quit using a stroller at WDW (kids were 4 and 6 that year). Even the kids noticed life was easier without a stroller at WDW.

We used a WDW stroller for our 6 year old at Epcot. It is a HUGE park and it was worth it - especially if you've already been going hard for a couple of days. We were fine without one for the other parks though.

Hi

My favourite Disney website has a lot of info about the strollers, and includes pictures:

http://allearsnet.com/pl/strol_faq.htm

Hope that helps!
Rachel