How's That High Stroller Treatment?

[MousDad]

Im curious if more rented strollers are being taken inside the park...in other words...if I rent a double and park it...what is to prevent someone else from taking it as their own? If that happens can I go back to the stroller rental location and get another one? I seem to remember getting a stamped recent so that if I leave and return I don't have to re-pay, I assume that would be true if my stroller was "stolen" too?

My guess would be yes, since 1 receipt gets you a stroller at any park for as many days as you purchased.

Moral of the story, don't keep your receipt in the stroller.

 

[mbtohill]

That's what I figured...I'm heading down with my 7 and 5 year old daughters on Saturday...plan on renting a double all week in spite of the cost...It's just too convenient not too. Will report back with any interesting stroller news.

 

[MousDad]

That's what I figured...I'm heading down with my 7 and 5 year old daughters on Saturday...plan on renting a double all week in spite of the cost...It's just too convenient not too. Will report back with any interesting stroller news.

You make Disney oh so happy. But I'm with you in spirit - I think the rental strollers are outstanding also.

Good luck! Look forward to hearing back from you.

 

[fauna]

thwarting stroller stealers

Ok, I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it's from the Unofficial Guide. They suggest tying something personal (bandana, scarf..) to the stroller handle. One enterprising family took a (clean) diaper, rolled it up, poured some root beer on it and put it in a clear plastic bag. This was then tied to the stroller handle. Needless to say, nobody touched it.

 

[coasterphil]

Interesting, I'm trying to interpret your statement. You haven't noticed a change, citing that people are not prepared to bring their own yet. So from that I infer that you have not seen a noticeable drop in rental strollers yet? From that I would infer that roughly the same # of people are still renting, therefore paying the new rates. Have I interpreted this correct?

If so, I'm surprised. I would have expected to see an immediate, very noticeable drop in the number of rental strollers, especially doublewides. I could see there being a gradual increase in the number of private strollers.

Thanks for your input. I would love to hear from someone else.

Correct, I see just as many people with the rental strollers now as I did a month ago. Most guests who planned on renting a stroller aren't suddenly going to go without one due to a price increase they were unaware of until arrival, and I'm sure that they are guests who don't even bother to look at what the cost of stroller rental is before leaving home and don't know that it went up. A lot of families can't budget to that type of level.

 

[Dream Theater]

We will be at WDW in 2 weeks with our 17 month old twin boys. We purchased 2 Baby Trend Strollers that my inlaws (live in Fla.) will bring to the parks. Each stroller was $30.00. They are not a $300 McLaren but as long as they last 7 days in the parks, I feel I saved $$$$.

Saves us adding 2 strollers to the van for the drive down from Jersey and beats $200+ on rentals.

 

[joel_maxwell]

An explosion here generally amounts to nothing more than a snap n' pop in the real world. As a whole highly active members of sights like WDWMagic are better informed about the goings on at WDW then some of the front line CM's and are much more aware of negative changes. We know that chicken fingers changed to chicken chunks, we know that you can no longer find honey mustard at DHS, we know about the $3 surcharge on buffets during holidays, etc but we might only comprise 1% of the guests in the parks on any given day. The average guest is completely ignorant to these things and for the most part could care less.

*clears throat*

bun prices.

you forgot one of the recent explosions

 

[Tweedle Adie]

I noticed on my last trip that the gift shops are now selling umbrella strollers, which may be cheaper than renting. Another option is to hit the local walmart and pick up a cheapish stroller and mail it to your resort.

 

[Master Yoda]

*clears throat*

bun prices.

you forgot one of the recent explosions

ehhh. I felt it was getting a little long winded. Besides I stayed completely clear of that thread for my own sanity.

 

[Laura]

I've never understood why anyone would want to pay $30 to rent a stroller for a day ($210 a week!) when you could just buy a perfectly functional umbrella stroller for $10-$15 and bring it with you. Unless your child is too overweight to use a normal stroller, or too old.

On my trip in a few weeks I'm taking my 2 children by myself (my husband is deployed). It makes sense that I should rent a double stroller each day to save myself the hassle of actually having to watch my kids, but there's no frickin way I'll be paying over $200 while I'm down there for this convenience. Hand holding will have to be good enough. Either that or I'll bring a single umbrella stroller and they'll have to take turns.

 

[wdwmomof3]

An explosion here generally amounts to nothing more than a snap n' pop in the real world. As a whole highly active members of sights like WDWMagic are better informed about the goings on at WDW then some of the front line CM's and are much more aware of negative changes. We know that chicken fingers changed to chicken chunks, we know that you can no longer find honey mustard at DHS, we know about the $3 surcharge on buffets during holidays, etc but we might only comprise 1% of the guests in the parks on any given day. The average guest is completely ignorant to these things and for the most part could care less.

Wait a minute, just hold on there big guy... You mean to tell me that there is no honey mustard at DHS anymore?! How did I miss that? What in the world am I going to do with my honey mustard gulping kids? The chicken is one thing but they will eat it in any size, shape or form but honey mustard, holy cow.

This is a disaster.

:lol:

 

[Master Yoda]

Wait a minute, just hold on there big guy... You mean to tell me that there is no honey mustard at DHS anymore?! How did I miss that? What in the world am I going to do with my honey mustard gulping kids? The chicken is one thing but they will eat it in any size, shape or form but honey mustard, holy cow.

This is a disaster.

:lol:

Feel free to vent your frustration here.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=301193

Do not forget to use phrases such as "end of the world", "destroying the magic" and "Walt never would have done this"

:lol:

 

[mbtohill]

I've never understood why anyone would want to pay $30 to rent a stroller for a day ($210 a week!) when you could just buy a perfectly functional umbrella stroller for $10-$15 and bring it with you. Unless your child is too overweight to use a normal stroller, or too old.

On my trip in a few weeks I'm taking my 2 children by myself (my husband is deployed). It makes sense that I should rent a double stroller each day to save myself the hassle of actually having to watch my kids, but there's no frickin way I'll be paying over $200 while I'm down there for this convenience. Hand holding will have to be good enough. Either that or I'll bring a single umbrella stroller and they'll have to take turns.

My children are neither overweight or lazy....I'd like to think they are two normally active children. My 7 year old spend very little time in the stroller but at the end of a long day she needs somewhere to take a break. When we do Disney we DO HARDCORE DISNEY We get to the parks when the open, leave around 2, hit the pool and return around 5-6. My kids love going to the parks and experiencing everything and there is NO WAY we could do it without the double stroller especially in the 85-90 degree heat. I understand that not everyone views the $162 weekly rental ($27 per day for multiple days x 6 days) as a manageable expense, but for me it is absolutely worth every cent. Do I think $27 a day is ridiculous, yes...am I glab my kids are close to outgrowing the stroller YES..will I use a double every day..YES

 

[MousDad]

I've never understood why anyone would want to pay $30 to rent a stroller for a day ($210 a week!) when you could just buy a perfectly functional umbrella stroller for $10-$15 and bring it with you. Unless your child is too overweight to use a normal stroller, or too old.

But remember, this is more than double the price of what it was only several weeks ago. Many people didn't mind paying the (then) moderate fees for the convenience of using the WDW models, and had gotten used to it.

Analogy - Americans being so used to driving gas powered cars that they pay $3.65 a gallon for gas, even thought it was less than half that price just a few years ago.

On my trip in a few weeks I'm taking my 2 children by myself (my husband is deployed). It makes sense that I should rent a double stroller each day to save myself the hassle of actually having to watch my kids, but there's no frickin way I'll be paying over $200 while I'm down there for this convenience. Hand holding will have to be good enough. Either that or I'll bring a single umbrella stroller and they'll have to take turns.

So if you hadn't known about the price increase, were planning on renting a double, got to the park and saw the price, would you then keep your plan to rent for a week, or just buy one in a shop or offsite for the rest of your trip. Coasterphil has suggested that people are still renting.

 

[Laura]

My children are neither overweight or lazy....I'd like to think they are two normally active children. My 7 year old spend very little time in the stroller but at the end of a long day she needs somewhere to take a break. When we do Disney we DO HARDCORE DISNEY We get to the parks when the open, leave around 2, hit the pool and return around 5-6. My kids love going to the parks and experiencing everything and there is NO WAY we could do it without the double stroller especially in the 85-90 degree heat. I understand that not everyone views the $162 weekly rental ($27 per day for multiple days x 6 days) as a manageable expense, but for me it is absolutely worth every cent. Do I think $27 a day is ridiculous, yes...am I glab my kids are close to outgrowing the stroller YES..will I use a double every day..YES

I'm not arguing with you whether or not your kids need a stroller. My nearly 7 year old still uses one at WDW at the end of the night. My argument is why on earth anyone would want to pay so much money to RENT a stroller when you can save hundreds of dollars by just buying and bringing your own. The only reason I can think of to rent one is if your child is too old or overweight for a regular stroller and the only one they will fit in is a Disney stroller.

So if you hadn't known about the price increase, were planning on renting a double, got to the park and saw the price, would you then keep your plan to rent for a week, or just buy one in a shop or offsite for the rest of your trip. Coasterphil has suggested that people are still renting.

I would not rent a Disney stroller with or without a price increase. I bring my own strollers because I find it a complete waste of money to rent something you can own for a fraction of the price.

 

[Laura]

When we do Disney we DO HARDCORE DISNEY We get to the parks when the open, leave around 2, hit the pool and return around 5-6. My kids love going to the parks and experiencing everything and there is NO WAY we could do it without the double stroller especially in the 85-90 degree heat.

And I forgot to mention this in my earlier reply, but it is because of these reasons you listed that I'm very nervous about my next trip. We've always had the strollers and have always stayed in the parks every day from opening until closing without a break.

I'll be taking my kids in June, when it's hotter than heck outside, and obviously I cannot push 2 strollers by myself so we will be WALKING all the Disney parks, plus Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Sea World at my 4 year old's pace. It will be interesting. :lol:

 

[joel_maxwell]

I've never understood why anyone would want to pay $30 to rent a stroller for a day ($210 a week!) when you could just buy a perfectly functional umbrella stroller for $10-$15 and bring it with you. Unless your child is too overweight to use a normal stroller, or too old.

On my trip in a few weeks I'm taking my 2 children by myself (my husband is deployed). It makes sense that I should rent a double stroller each day to save myself the hassle of actually having to watch my kids, but there's no frickin way I'll be paying over $200 while I'm down there for this convenience. Hand holding will have to be good enough. Either that or I'll bring a single umbrella stroller and they'll have to take turns.

me too. i mean i do have my limits and pride as a wdwmagic subscriber.

 

[Chape19714]

Well Phd I can tell you first hand that my strollers were stolen the first 10 minutes that I was in the park. We parked our brand new umbrella strollers with the help of the CM's outside of Philharmagic and when we came out they had not been moved they had been stolen!!!! They were replaced by 2 very old and disgusting strollers that someone has switched with theirs. The CM's said they didn't see anything unusual and we were forced to rent a double for the rest of the day. We went to the Contemporary for dinner that night and I had to spend $80 for 2 replacement strollers for the rest of our trip.

I can guarantee you that I WILL BE locking them to a pole on my trip next week!!! We talked to a security person who told us the many stories of this happening a lot more. I am not about to lose 2 more strollers and my father will be traveling with his own personal ECV and he has already bought a bike lock to make sure his $10,000 chair doesnt disappear while it is unattended too!!:brick:

Just to let you know, If you chain your stroller to anyting in the park Cast Members WILL still move it, and cut the chain to do so. We have to move strollers to keep enterances, exits, pathways, and even locations you assume are just walls, clear. There is a reason for this, and it's quite simple: The Safety of every guest and Cast Member in the Theme Park.

 

[mbtohill]

And I forgot to mention this in my earlier reply, but it is because of these reasons you listed that I'm very nervous about my next trip. We've always had the strollers and have always stayed in the parks every day from opening until closing without a break.

I'll be taking my kids in June, when it's hotter than heck outside, and obviously I cannot push 2 strollers by myself so we will be WALKING all the Disney parks, plus Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Sea World at my 4 year old's pace. It will be interesting. :lol:

Good Luck Laura...I think the piece of advice that I have heard the most that would seem to apply in your case is just GO SLOW...and understand ahead of time that you will be going slower and maybe not seeing everything.

To your point about renting vs. buying...as you know with a child going on 7 there are not any (that I know of) strollers that can handle a 5 and a 7 year old the way the Disney doubles can....most strollers have a bar across the front that make them too hard to get in an out of for an older child...

Anyway....no ill will intended in my previous email and good luck to you

4 days and a wake up!!!!!

 

[FLDISFAN]

Feel free to vent your frustration here.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=301193

Do not forget to use phrases such as "end of the world", "destroying the magic" and "Walt never would have done this"

:lol:

EPIC RESPONSE!!!!!!

:ROFLOL::ROFLOL::ROFLOL: