Just keep swimming.... or strollering

Did you know, a person could average about 10 miles of walking at a Walt Disney World park?  It's true.  My fitness tracker confirmed that little tidbit of information.

As a fairly active adult, a 10 mile day at the park is all fine and dandy.  But add a 3 year old into the mix...well 10 miles of walking is a bit much for those little legs.  It was an absolute no brainer that we required a stroller for our family trip to Walt Disney World.

There are a few choices regarding using strollers in Walt Disney World.  Some folks prefer to bring along their own stroller.  Not a feasible option for the Goldman Family.  Therefore, we made a decision to rent a stroller.  Disney does rent strollers in the parks, but after dropping those strollers at the gate at the end of a day walking about 10 miles, you would then have to carry the little kiddo to the next mode of transportation to get back to your hotel.  That is enough reason for this family to go with Option 3, renting from an outside company.

A little FYI for those of you staying on Disney property, there are a select number of stroller rental companies that have the approval from Disney to leave rentals at Bell Services.  Those select companies are NOT your only choices.  The "'non-approved" companies will make arrangements to meet you in person at your resort.  We've done it on a previous trip and it really was no hassle.

Staying at Shades of Green this time around, we didn't have to worry about meeting anyone, as Shades allows rentals to be left with Bell Services.  We chose to rent from Baby Wheels Orlando.

Baby Wheels is a family owned and operated company.  I first heard about Baby Wheels from Touring Plans, my online Disney family for the past 6 years.  Our experience with Baby Wheels was great from reserving our stroller, to dropping it back off at Bell Services.  Baby Wheels offers 8 different stroller options, including singles, doubles and infant travel systems.  Every stroller comes with a rain cover and parent console.  The GT models also include a small soft sided cooler.


The Baby Wheels website is very easy to navigate.  It is very easy to compare the different options right from their front page.  Each stroller option lists its rental price per night, child weight limit, and dimensions folded and unfolded.  A single stroller was all we needed for our feisty 3 year old.  And since he's a pretty small dude, we could go with a stroller with a lower child weight limit.  On our trip 5 years ago, we used a City mini GT.  It was a great option, but this time we opted for the slightly smaller and lighter stroller.  With the Single Stroller option, Baby Wheels provides either a Britax B Agile or a Baby Jogger City Mini.  That's probably the hardest part of the whole process, choosing which stroller is right for your family.  After you click that "Book Now" button, is all very simple.

Baby Wheels gives you all of the information right on the booking page about the procedures on delivery day for your resort.  Select your Check-in and Check-out dates.  If the calendar is green, a stroller is available.  The remainder of the process is super straight forward after you click "Book Now".  There are a few other options you can add to your rental including insurance (which I would suggest because things happen), a case of bottled water, a glider board and even a snack sack.

To finalize the process, you will indicate the resort you will be staying at, and approximate arrival time which is mostly used for the resorts that require an-person meet drop off.  Like I mentioned, we didn't have to worry about an in-person meet, so our stroller was waiting for us when we arrived at Shades of Green.    it was easy to pick our stroller out at Bell Services because Baby Wheels puts a name tag with our Family Name, which is big enough to pick out in a sea of stroller at the parks.

We ended up with the Britax B Agile. This model, and the bright green color, helped it stand our from the numerous City Mini's rentals in the parks.  The size was perfect for our Littlesthead.  He could sit comfortably and it reclined fully if he wanted to lie down.  The canopy is very big and gives plenty of protection from that Florida sun.

      

 The parent console is a very useful accessory.  It has one designated cup holder, and 2 other compartments with covers that fold down.  We constantly had all 3 compartments filled with cups or our trusty misting spray fan.

The basket under the seat was also super roomy.  It could easily fit a change of clothes for Littlesthead, the rain cover for the stroller and rain gear (because it's summer in Florida and rains almost every day).



When it was time to get on one of those buses, the stroller folded up nicely.  It just takes a push of a button, and a pull on a strap.  We did need to get the rain gear out of the bottom basket, or it didn't fold up correctly. It was light to carry and didn't take up a ton of space, which is ideal for a crowded bus at the end of the day.

 At the end of our trip, I made sure all of our belongings were out of the stroller, the rain cover was in its bag and back in the basket, and that the stroller was in a condition just as I received it.  I wheeled it down to our Bell Services where it waited to be picked up by a Baby Wheels representative.

I don't know when our next family trip to Walt Disney World will be, but if we require a stroller, I know that I will use Baby Wheels again, and would definitely suggest them to anyone looking to rental a stroller during their trip to Mickey's Florida home.

**  I received a complimentary rental in exchange for my review.  **