A day at Disneyland Resort may have you traveling MILES as you move back and forth between attractions, dining and shops. If you are visiting with children, a good stroller strategy will improve everyone’s day. Here are our five tips for making use of strollers during your visit to Disneyland Resort:
You can rent strollers from Disneyland Resort or from outside vendors.
Maybe you do not regularly use a stroller at home or you did not pack one for your trip. In any case, single and double strollers are available for you to rent for your Disneyland Resort visit. Disney has a stroller rental facility on the Esplanade (specifically directly east of the Disneyland Park main entrance). You can use Disney strollers at the park and in the Downtown Disney District. You cannot take these Disneyland strollers outside of the resort’s security checkpoints, so you cannot use them to access parking lots or hotels, even the official resort hotels.
For this reason, or to potentially save some money, you may want to look into outside vendors for stroller rentals. A simple online search should reveal a list. Some vendors and hotels allow these strollers to be delivered or retrieved by the vendor from bell services. Check with your hotel and vendor to find out is this is a possibility. For example, the Disneyland Resort Hotels currently partner with ScooterBug for this third-party service.
Strollers must fit within certain parameters.
At the time of this writing, strollers larger than 31” by 52” are not allowed in Disneyland Resort. Wagons, including stroller wagons, are also not allowed.
These restrictions are subject to change, so be sure to check with an official Disney source before your visit. If you want to check the dimensions of your stroller in person, you may also be able to find marked rectangles on the ground near Disneyland Resort security checkpoints. If your stroller fits inside this rectangle, you can probably take it into the parks. We have found that most double strollers, even jogging-style ones, fit inside these parameters. Still, we encourage you to check your stroller dimensions yourself, and be sure verify that you can use your third-party stroller rental in the parks. Most area rental companies stock their strollers accordingly.
Strollers are not allowed in some areas.
With some exceptions, Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park do not allow strollers in most attractions queues or show buildings. Strollers are also not allowed on escalators, and children cannot sit in a stroller while riding a tram.
If you are making use of a stroller as a mobility device for a guest with a disability, you can obtain a “Stroller as a Wheelchair” tag from Guest Relations. These tagged strollers will be allowed in any queues that can also accommodate wheelchairs.
There are stroller parking areas, but your stroller might magically move.
So where do strollers go if you have to leave them behind to enter an attraction? Look for designated stroller parking nearby. There are so very many strollers at Disneyland Resort every day that there are actually specific places to park them while not occupied. Be aware: even if you park your strolled in a designated spot (and especially if you do not), it may be gone by the time you get back! Cast members may shift strollers around to arrange them more efficiently as guests come and go. This allows cast members to keep walkways clear and keep the parks safer for everyone. Unfortunately, it also means you might have a little extra trouble finding your stroller when you return to it, so…
Make your stroller easy to find.
Before a visit to Disneyland Resort, we decorate our stroller with something bright and recognizable. We like to wrap colorful ribbons securely around the handle. The ribbons are not too valuable to lose our ruin, and they are easy to pack. We use the same ribbons we tie onto our luggage when flying, so this a familiar visual cue for us. Other guests like to use scarves, balloons or string lights.
With a bright topper, we can more easily spot a stroller when it was been moved. It also helps us to remember which stroller is ours: this is very important when our stroller is a rental we would not immediately recognize.
We have also attached devices like an Apple AirTag or Tile Tracker to our stroller, but we find that we rarely need to use these. Our stroller is usually quite near where we left it, but the ribbons help us find it amongst a sea of other strollers
We hope you find this information on using strollers at Disneyland Resort useful.
If you are visiting with young children, you may also want to take a look at 5 Tips for Visiting Disneyland Resort with Young Children. For a step-by-step planning guide, check-out our advice here. Thanks for reading!