Walt Disney World & a Bob Stoller

One of the great debates when traveling to Walt Disney world is what stroller to bring along, do you rent one, do you buy a cheap stroller to travel with, do you use one from the parks, or do you rent one from somewhere outside the parks that will bring it to your resort... or.... or.... or....... the list goes on and on. The options and possibilities are endless. In my opinion there really is not one right answer and there are probably countless answers that would serve you well. I debated what I wanted to do. Do I haul our Bob Stroller (which I love) through the airport, gate check it for free, and then lug it all around the parks and have to fold it down every time we went on a bus, and of course run the risk of something happening to it while it gets gate checked or while we are in the parks? As you can tell from the pictures I opted to bring our Bob stroller. 

I was a little worried that it would be cumbersome or that the airline would not be thrilled with my choice of stroller, but for us it was a perfect option. Lucy LOVES riding in her Bob stroller and I would completely recommend people use their Bob while at Walt Disney World. Yes, it is heavier than an umbrella stroller however, it also reclines which allowed Lucy to nap well in it when she needed to. We also own the rain cover which was AWESOME when it was raining which we don't have for our umbrella stroller. Yes, it was a little bigger and bulkier on the buses to and from the parks, and it was totally fine, we weren't the only ones with a big stroller. We even saw some folks with the double Bob stroller. During the day the buses usually had quite a bit of space on them so it really wasn't a big deal. After fireworks it was always crazy on the bus but really no one said anything about our large stroller or anything, plus there were many large strollers on the bus at night.

I really liked having our own stroller, I knew it was clean (or as clean as we keep our stroller), I knew how to use it (how to quickly fold it up and unfold it), I wasn't worried about if something happened to it and having to pay for damages, I wasn't worried about if Lucy puked or pooped on it. I loved having our own stroller. The perk of hauling a stroller that we haven't had in years past without a stroller at Disney World is that we had somewhere to store all of our sweatshirts and things so we didn't have to constantly be hauling them around. When we were on rides and in attractions we did leave stuff under and in our stroller like our sweatshirts and the rain cover for the stroller, however I always hauled our bag with us that held the diapers, bottles, camera, etc.

The stroller also provided nice viewing for Lucy at parades and things, we would park her stroller right up next to the curb and she could easily watch the parades and things in the shade of her stroller. As you can tell she LOVES riding in her stroller as much as she LOVES being worn in her Tula or Beco carrier. I wouldn't do WDW without both a stroller and a carrier. The carrier we used while on rides, while she was napping, during meals when she was sleeping, and a few other times. I would say she split her time fairly evenly between the stroller and the carrier. When we go back in November (Marc & I are running the Wine and Dine Half Marathon) I will bring the stroller and the carrier again. The perk this time with the carrier is Dad can help wear her too (I love wearing her but some days she was in the carrier five plus hours). It was particularly nice at night when we could put her in the carrier and she would fall asleep before the fireworks, she would sleep through the fireworks, the bus ride home, and I could put her straight into her pack and play after a diaper change.