Review: Orlando Stroller Rentals

For our last trip to Walt Disney World back in December we had to do something that we have never had to do on any previous trip.... We had to fly 5,000 miles to get there! We were staying longer than we ever had before, 8 glorious nights! In addition to the 8 nights we would spend at WDW, we had another two weeks of flying across the United States after we left Orlando. Now I don't know about you, but when my family of 5 travels anywhere, we travel much like Washington's Army preparing to live through the winter at Valley Forge! You can imagine the amount of luggage we had to bring for a nearly month long trip to America. And since we weren't going to be renting a U-Haul truck to get around, we had to be somewhat strategic about the amount of baggage we would be bringing.

So with that in mind you can understand why we decided not to bring our double stroller along on the journey. Now we love our double stroller, a Combi Twin Sport 2 side by side.

It has been to WDW more times than I can count, and it has served us well. We knew that we would need a double stroller, so we decided to try a service that I had heard about on many Disney Podcasts, Orlando Stroller Rentals. After some deliberation we chose to rent the City Mini Double Stroller, which was $105 dollars for the 8 nights we would need it. We also paid an extra $10 for the rain cover, which was the best money we spent, because it didn't rain a drop while we were there! Online ordering was without hassle, and as promised, our stroller was at the Port Orleans Riverside bell services when we checked in.

One of the things I had heard about Orlando Stroller Rentals was that their strollers were in great condition. Some people had even said they were in brand new condition. When we received ours I took a look at it and thought, this is not a new stroller. It was well used, and not dirty, but it was showing a lot of wear and tear. It still looked to be in good shape, so I wasn't overly concerned, just a little surprised.

The stroller looked very comfortable, and the little ones jumped right in an were ready to explore! Initially, I felt like the stroller didn't handle very well, but I chalked it up to it being different to what I was used to. As time went on I got used to it, although I never felt like it did as well as our stroller. This isn't really a criticism, in general it handled pretty well, it just wasn't as easy to push or turn as our Combi Twin Sport. Pushing our Combi with one hand is pretty easy, with the City Double, not so much. I think this is mostly because of the placement of the front wheels. On the Combi, the front wheels are situated all the way to the width of the stroller,

making it very easy to keep in a straight line. On the City Double, the front wheels are not placed as wide in the front because the stroller actually tapers from front to back, which makes for a tight turning radius, but makes going straight a bit more difficult. Wow this is really technical! One of the great things was how easy it was to fold up, and how it nearly went completely flat to store in the trunk of our rental. That was the reason we chose the City Double instead of the City Elite Double, which has larger wheels.

So how did it do in the parks? It did pretty well. I was surprised by how many people use stroller rental services! I guess I had never paid attention before, but there were a lot a City Doubles in the parks! Our stroller was well marked with our name on a sign, so distinguishing it from the rest was not difficult, but we still attached a couple of leis that we got from our breakfast at Ohana, to make ours stand out. Moving among the crowd was good, but I did take out my wife's heels a couple of times because I wasn't used to the dimensions of the City Double, and even later in the week I still had this problem. (Sorry honey....) It also maneuvered well in the tight confines of the shops. Weaving in between racks of merchandise, and quick escapes from grabby hands were handled with relative ease. one problem that we did have was pushing the stroller over the tracks that run down the center of Main Street and the Hub. For whatever reason, this has never been a problem with our Combi, but on the City Double the wheels kept getting stuck in the tracks, which would lead to a problem soon.

As we were leaving the Magic Kingdom on our 2nd night our stroller threw a wheel. The outside wheel on the front left literally fell off. Thank goodness it was on our way out of the park! We I was able to get the stroller back to the room by popping a wheelie the whole way back. The kids loved it, but I was not very happy that we has lost a wheel. I was worried about getting a replacement for the next day because at this point it was past 11:00 at night, and I knew I wouldn't be able to talk to a person to get this resolved before the morning.

Attached to the stroller when we received it was a card with contact numbers. As soon as we returned to the room I called it expecting a message telling me, "we're closed, call back tomorrow, chump!" I was wrong. There was a way to leave a message, and I got a call back within 15 minutes of leaving the message. I can't remember the name of the man that I spoke to, but he was very helpful, and told me that this happens all the time, and to throw away the entire wheel mechanism, and they would deliver a new one to me by 7:00 the next morning. I was impressed, but also wondered, if this happens all the time, why would you not use a different stroller manufacturer? After replacing the wheel (which was very easy), we didn't have any more problems for the rest of the trip.

On our last morning we dropped the stroller off at bell services, and Orlando Stroller Rentals picked it up. Easy as 1-2-3!

So after our experience with Orlando Stroller Rentals I feel very confident in highly recommending them. The entire process was very easy from start to finish, and when we did have a problem, they quickly and without hassle, handled it to my satisfaction. While I did not like the City Double as much as our Combi Twin Sport, it is a pretty good stroller, and will serve most peoples needs just fine. You might want to look into the City Elite with it's larger wheels however. I don't think that will ever have to use a stroller rental service again, but if we do I will return to Orlando Stroller Rentals.