To stroller or not to Stroller that is is the question

[Thecorsi4]

We are headed down to the wonderful house of mouse in 4 days. The wife and i are in the discussion of the Five year old princess. She is a trooper when it comes to walking through attractions. Disney World is a whole other level of walking. Just looking for some opinions.

Would you get a stroller for the five year old. I am leaning towards yes...

 

[TDGMedley]

My son (age 4) walks everywhere at home and even when we go to the zoo. But yes Disney is very different, lot of walking. We will be there again in Feb 2018 and Im going to bring a stroller. I figure we can see how it goes. I know he is going to want to walk a lot of it. but I know he will get tired to and wont mind sitting for a little bit.

 

[Ali Mouse]

Definitely bring the stroller!!!! Last year when my daughter was 6 we brought it and she used it all the time. She does not like using it and is a very active little girl but rode in it the whole time! My 11 year old son kept trying to use it and take it from her...very funny to see! They get extremely tired from walking so much and it is a great way for them to chill! Plus if you bring it and decide not to use it you can leave it in the hotel room or park it at one of the stroller locations for several hours and come back and get it when they get tired! Also if your stroller has a storage area underneath you can store everything there... we did -ponchos, filter bottles, popcorn buckets, snacks, left over desserts, and more !!!
Bring it...You will be glad that you did!
...If you do not have one from home just see if you need one after about a half of a day and rent one! But YES you need a stroller!
Now next year when we go we will have to decide if we should bring it for an 8 year old...probably not but we will miss it! Just watch we won't bring it and we will end up renting one OK so maybe we will bring it!l

 

[Weather_Lady]

I may be in the minority, but I'd say, when in doubt... don't.

My children were ages 4 (daughter) and 6 (son) at the time of our first WDW visit. We toured up to 5 hours at a time every morning and then again for another 5-6 hours every evening (with a nap break every afternoon and frequent restroom/snack breaks throughout the day), all on foot, and both kids did beautifully -- no whining to be carried, and not so much as a blister on their feet. (We did take care to put them in well-broken-in athletic shoes in the morning, and hiking sandals for our more relaxed evenings, so they were properly equipped for all that walking.) Granted, both of my kids are tall for their ages, very energetic, and in decent physical shape, and they were getting a 1-2 hour nap almost every afternoon. If your daughter is of typical-or-better size and health for her age, and if you're not planning to stay in the parks all day, from rope drop to closing, there's no reason she should need a stroller, and you'll be able to navigate much more freely without it. (That being said, just because she doesn't need it doesn't mean you might not still want to bring one, for reasons discussed by others above - just weigh the pros and cons ahead of time, keeping in mind that having a stroller means having to find places to park it every time you visit an attraction, and having to continually unload it and fold it up on most Disney transportation.)

The only "strolling" my children did was this kind...

 

[G8rchamps]

We kept the stroller for a long time, got better at parking it and leaving it for a while. Kids are older now, but sometimes we just miss the storage.

 

[21stamps]

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[allgiggles]

I'm in the minority as well. We didn't start taking each of our kids to Disney until they were 4 years old for a whole host of reasons that may or may not apply to other families, but one of the reasons was because we didn't want to have to deal with a stroller. By the age of 4 our kids were used to doing a lot of walking so they were fine at Disney. We did rope drop every morning and most days just pushed through the day and left the park around 5 or 6:00 to head back to our resort for the evening. We made sure to take breaks in the parks (sitting for a snack/drink, sitting at lunch, going to a show when we needed to get off of our feet for awhile, etc.) and had no problems. We always make sure each person in our family takes 2 pair of broken in good supportive shoes no matter where we go on vacation. This is especially important at Disney. None of our 5 kids ever asked for a stroller and never asked to be carried at Disney. We never let them know it was even an option. They stopped using a stroller in general by age 3 at the latest, so to them, strollers were for a baby. I will say that we did rent a stroller at Disney on one trip because our then 6-yo daughter was having a terrible bout with allergies when we arrived. We knew she would never tolerate all of the walking. The stroller saved our vacation on that trip but it also confirmed for us that we had made a good decision to not even suggest using a stroller when the kids were younger. We found it to be a big PITB to have to park it and retrieve it all the time (and we'd park it in one spot and do all the attractions in that general area before retrieving it). And on rope drop days, we would hit a ride or two before going to get the stroller just so we didn't have to try and maneuver it through the hoards of people. But thousands of people use strollers at Disney every day so obviously not everyone dislikes using them.

All that being said, you have to do what works for your family. If it was me, I wouldn't bring a stroller. However, if after going to the parks for a day or two it seems to be too much walking for her, then rent a stroller. I know the time we rented ours you got a discount for multi-day rentals at Disney. Not sure if that's still the case. Chances are if she knows a stroller is an option, she will want to use it all day, every day (I'd *love* for someone to push me around in a stroller all day!). But if she doesn't even think it's a possibility, she might not even miss it. If you're flying and decide to bring your own stroller along, just tell her it's only for at the airport and at Disney you have to leave it in the room and see how it goes.

 

[SAV]

If you're thinking of renting one, why not just bring your own? If flying, you can use it in the Airport, then gate check it and it will be there when you get off the plane.

We used to use the one that is between an umbrella Stroller and the huge travel system ones. It had the sun shade, basket underneath, tray and footrest for the kid, tray for us, reclined and folded up rather small.

 

[PrincessL]

Are you debating about bringing one from home or renting one?

If you are bringing from home then I would bring it and if you end up not needing it leave it in your room. We were there at the beginning of the month and rented one mainly for our 3 year old. But our 5 year old just needed a break a couple of times and to get out of the sun. The heat is going to play a factor even if your DD is in the best shape. We took breaks, used the stroller for both kiddos, stayed hydrated and didn't have one complaint about the walking. I probably would have still rented one even if it was just for our 5 year old and maybe not used it the whole time but still had it.

Have a fun trip

 

[Thecorsi4]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I think we are gonna give it a go without the stroller and see how it goes.

 

[carriebeth]

When my kids are 5 they still use strollers at Disney. At home they never would in any situation..full days at the zoo or other amusement parks etc. But we are at Disney for near 2 weeks. We rope drop to park close. Its hot when we are there. Even if sometimes we are pushing an empty stroller or two (8 kids we get more than one stroller) we are always glad we have them each day. The amount of stuff we have to take each day is sizable too and its always great to have the storage space (sunscreen for 10 of us for each day, diapers, pull ups wipes...etc....8 kids requires a lot of stuff!)

 

[rob0519]

You know your children better than anyone. If you think they need a stroller, bring or rent one. Long, hot, sunny days and lots of walking affect each child a little differently. Just don't park it somewhere and leave your wallet, keys and medicine in it while you go to a show.

 

[jaklgreen]

We stopped with the strollers when they turned 5. We go every year and they had no issues walking at that age. We are not commando style tourists and take plenty of little breaks through out the day. As the years have gone by, the less and less we bring with us to the parks. We are down to small wallet/phone/small ziplock of ibuprofen, and I have a small lip gloss, all of which goes in the pockets, no bag. That's it. We have been touring like this for several years and have not needed anything else. I would hate to have to deal with a stroller or bag again. Less is better.