A day at Disneyland Resort will likely 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. If you are not sure whether you want to bring a stroller to Disneyland Resort, we recommend reading: Should I Bring a Stroller to Disneyland? If the answer is “yes,” keep reading for our five tips for making your time with strollers at Disneyland as smooth as possible.
1 – Review Your Options:
You can rent strollers from Disneyland Resort or from outside vendors, or you can bring your own.
You can certainly bring your own stroller to Disneyland Resort. If you have a stroller your would like to bring, go ahead and skip to tip 2, where we go over size restrictions.
But, maybe you do not regularly use a stroller at home or you did not pack one for your trip. Whatever your situation, 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 current 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 and to understand their process. Your hotel may work with a certain preferred vendor. For example, the Disneyland Resort Hotels currently partner with ScooterBug for this third-party service.
2 – Strollers must fit within certain parameters.
And, no wagons allowed!
At the time of 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. Disney has an FAQ page about stroller guidelines on the Disneyland website here.
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 with these size requirements in mind.
Strollers are not allowed in some areas.
Strollers are great for trekking between attractions, and we love them for walking to hotels, but you will not be able to use them everywhere. Take note of where strollers are not allowed and plan accordingly.
With some exceptions, Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park do not allow strollers in most attraction 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 they are not occupied.
But 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 almost like handlebar tape (but not sticky). 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 among 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. If this article has made you wonder whether you should bring a stroller after all, let us walk you through the decision process: Should I Bring a Stroller to Disneyland? In fact, we would love to walk you through the whole decision process with our complete and free Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep. Finally, please consider subscribing to our free newsletter below to get the latest articles right in your inbox. Thanks again for reading!