the age-old big kid stroller question....

[kstgelais4]

I honestly place no judgement on any kid riding in a stroller. You know your kid the best, and if you think he (you) would benefit from having one, then by all means, rent one! When we go in April we will have 4 kids under 7, My son will be turning 7 on this trip. We will have a double stroller and a single stroller, and if he wants to sit down and get some rest, than he should, although I don't think he will be using it that much. My 4 year old daughter on the other hand, is lazy as all get out, and I think will be in it often. I remember one of our last trips when we were waiting for a parade to start, and I caught myself sitting down in the stroller while the kids were up running around. Now that must have been a spectacle! LOL

 

[Klayfish]

OMG... my kids will be 7, 7, and, 8 when we go (the boys turn 7 the day before we leave). It never even occurred to me that they might need a stroller. I honestly think I will cry if I have to deal with one again. They did a 4 mile hike one day followed by a day walking around a zoo from 9-3:30 a few weeks ago. I am really hoping we don't end up needing to rent a stroller while we are there.

Doing a hike and then a zoo trip is entirely different than a week (don't know how long you're going for) trip at WDW. That's 5 or 6 miles per day, or more. It's really not a big deal at all to use a stroller. Like I mentioned, we did it when our twins were 7 and/or 8. If you have a stroller with larger wheels, it's quite easy to push...and if it saves them from getting exhausted, well worth it. Maybe get a double wide (which is what we had) and let your 3 kids rotate?

 

[nat8199]

Doing a hike and then a zoo trip is entirely different than a week (don't know how long you're going for) trip at WDW. That's 5 or 6 miles per day, or more. It's really not a big deal at all to use a stroller. Like I mentioned, we did it when our twins were 7 and/or 8. If you have a stroller with larger wheels, it's quite easy to push...and if it saves them from getting exhausted, well worth it. Maybe get a double wide (which is what we had) and let your 3 kids rotate?

Thank you. I am going to talk to my DH and see what he thinks. The years of pushing a triple stroller have just traumatized me. I really don't want to ever have to deal with another one! We did rent one for our trip in 2015 even though we hadn't use one in a long time.

We only do the parks opening to dinner time, so maybe we will make it without one. But you are right. I really don't want to be carrying kids anywhere.

 

[Klayfish]

Trust me, I know the horrors. I have DS12 (turns 13 in a few days), DS9, DD9. When they were younger, we had all 3 of them in strollers. I pushed a double wide with the twins and DW pushed an umbrella with our oldest. For home use, we had that monster Joovy thing...two seats front to back, with a platform behind that for the older one to stand on. It was a beast, and frankly we preferred not to use it.

We never did...or still do...park open to close. We typically will do something like 9am (we're not rope drop people, it's not worth it) to 2 or 3pm. Then once in a while, we'll head back for a few hours in the evening, but typically not. Even that, the kids get tired after several days. Never had to physically carry them...if they get that tired and we don't have a stroller, we just tell them it's time to leave and they'll trudge their way to the exit and fall asleep in the car.

 

[1st*toright]

I'm also trying to figure out whether or not to rent a stroller - my DD is a tall 4, and we haven't used a stroller at home in years (so we would have to rent one - likely from Kingdom Strollers or one of the other delivery services). This is our first family trip, and it will be June. I was kinda planning to rent a stroller, but then I was in Orlando for work in February and spend half a day at MK - and it was a fairly "light" crowd day, and I was thinking what a huge pain it would be to navigate in crowds with a stroller, dealing with finding a place to park it, all of that. So, given that we are likely to do mid-afternoon breaks and not carry much with us (not planning to bring in food or much of anything else) I'm thinking I will pass on the stroller. We will be staying at the Poly, and I'm not expecting us to do any late nights in the park with the 4 year old (she's super easygoing - until about 7pm, then things fall apart quickly). We will likely trade off evenings- one of us will stay with the little one while the other does the park with our teenager.

We will see how she holds up - she has done fine with a long day at Six Flags without a stroller, but as everyone says, it is different when you are on day 5!

Do people who visit during high crowd times thing the stroller can be a pain? Or is it just worth it overall? I never really liked dealing with them, even at home, so I mostly wore my kids or DH carried them on his shoulders when they got tired.

 

[Klayfish]

Not flaming you at all, but remember Six Flags is not WDW. Not even close. We're passholders at Six Flags over GA, and it's a tiny fraction of the size of WDW. It's massive...beyond massive.

We go at pretty much exclusively peak times...4th of July, Thanksgiving, Xmas. Frankly, I think it's actually easier to have the child in the stroller than walking. In a massive crowd, it's so easy to keep track of the child in the stroller. When they're walking, especially when tired, in a massive crowd, it's not fun. We've walked out of MK on the 4th of July at night with a stroller. Was it super easy? No, but it wasn't easy for anyone. Just keep walking and keep an eye on the people in front of you. Some people are jerks and will try to cut in front of the stroller, but that same person cuts in front of anyone, just not stroller people.

This is definitely a personal decision, but just my own $.02 is that I'm a very big believer in using them, especially for kids under 6 or 7. I wouldn't want to do without it, unless I was just going for a quick weekend trip. When they have to walk, by noon they're usually getting tired. In a stroller, they're nice and fresh because they're not walking from ride to ride.

 

[jsternad]

Last time we were there my kids were 7 and 2 and I rented a double. I REALLY didn't want to hear any whining about my 7yo being tired or not wanting to stand/walk. It was a life saver. I never once heard him say that he was tired. SUCCESS! He's 8.5 now and DD is 4 and I'm renting a double again. We're staying at poly and it's SO NICE to just wheel it on to the monorail! If anything, it's worth it to have somewhere to put your stuff so you don't have to carry it!

 

[DopeyDame]

OMG... my kids will be 7, 7, and, 8 when we go (the boys turn 7 the day before we leave). It never even occurred to me that they might need a stroller. I honestly think I will cry if I have to deal with one again. They did a 4 mile hike one day followed by a day walking around a zoo from 9-3:30 a few weeks ago. I am really hoping we don't end up needing to rent a stroller while we are there.

We went in November with my kids, ages 4 and 7 at the time. We didn't bring a stroller, with the intention of renting one as the week went by if DD needed it. We never needed it and it was SO freeing to not have to deal with it! I loved the trips when the kids were little, but man was it fun to walk in without strollers and bags and bags of baby crap.

So definitely don't believe the hype that there's something crazy and unique about WDW that somehow means all kids will need a stroller. If they end up needing one, fine! But plenty of 7 year olds (and even 4 and 5 year olds) have wonderful trips without strollers.