Andrea Dekker

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Our New Double Stroller

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double stroller

Our brand new double stroller was delivered just over a month ago — yes, you read that right — BRAND NEW! Aside from diapers, wipes, and other “perishable” items, I think this double stroller was the very first baby thing I’ve ever personally purchased brand new.

NOTE: This post is not sponsored in any way and I did not get this stroller for free or discounted as a result of writing this post.

I’ve known what features I definitely wanted in a double for a very long time already; and even before Simon was born, I started doing my research. Since we had REALLY bad luck with purchasing cheapy used single strollers from garage sales and Craigslist (I literally bought and sold 10 different strollers before I found the ones we have now) I wanted to try to find “the one” on my first try so I wouldn’t have to hassle with buying and selling again.

The MAIN feature I wanted was the ability to configure the seating options in a variety of ways — including the ability to turn each seat around 180*. This is apparently really really hard to find unless you’re willing to spend over $600 on a double stroller (which I was not willing to do). Even the used strollers that had the features I wanted were between $250 and $300… and I wasn’t willing to spend THAT much money on a used stroller I wouldn’t be able to return if I ended up hating it.

So I did a little more research, I asked friends what they liked, and I searched Craigslist almost every night just to see if anything new popped up in our area.

I finally decided that my ideal stroller (for my budget) was the Contours Options LT Tandem Stroller in black (the color is actually called “Wilshire”).

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Not only was it one of the least expensive double strollers I stumbled across ($250 brand new with no coupons or discounts), it also had pretty much every feature I was looking for — including the ability to rearrange the seats in a variety of different ways.

stroller options

The website says there are 6 different ways to configure the seats…

  1. both seats facing forward
  2. both seats facing back towards you
  3. the seats facing into each other
  4. the seats back-to-back
  5. a carseat in the back and the front seat facing forward
  6. only using the front seat leaving tons of room for storage

However, they didn’t include OUR most favorite way to travel…

The carseat in the front facing back at me while the back seat faces forward. This is by-far our favorite arrangement as I can still see Simon, he can see me, Nora can easily see out, I can still talk with Nora, and Nora can talk to Simon 🙂

sleeping in the stroller

Some of the other features I like:

It was relatively frugal. It’s $250 brand new at the Buy Buy Baby store by me. However I had a 20% off coupon, I got free shipping, and I used gift cards. I ended up paying $212 (including tax) and it was shipped directly to my front door 3 days later! I did see a handful on Craigslist for around $150, but they were always bright red and always a decent drive from my house.

It steers REALLY REALLY easy and the turn-radius is really tight.

It comes with a cup holder — seriously, I can’t tell you how many strollers required you to pay extra for that!

It comes with the 2 stroller seats PLUS the infant carseat adapter — this was also a separate fee in most of the other strollers I looked at.

The carseat adapter fits virtually ANY carseat. SO smart… not sure why other companies don’t do this.

The storage basket is ginormous. You could easily put a few bags of groceries down there if you needed to.

It folds down pretty flat, especially when using the carseat adapter instead of the 2nd seat.

It’s relatively light weight — at only 35 pounds, it’s about 10 pounds lighter than most of the other strollers I looked at.

It’s really “skinny” and easily fits through doorways and narrow aisles. I know many people like the side-by-side double strollers, but I knew I definitely wanted the front and back double stroller because I don’t like getting stuck in doorways or tight spaces. Plus, since I don’t jog and have no desire to start jogging any time in the near future, a jogging stroller definitely was not a necessity for me 🙂

It’s available in black. So many of the strollers I looked at where only available in red, orange, blue, yellow or another bright color. I just want black, thank you very much!

The foot rests and backs of the seats are SEPARATELY adjustable. So I can adjust both the back reclining position and the foot rest position separately to fit each kid’s need.

It was super easy to assemble. Since I’ve never purchased any baby equipment brand new, I didn’t actually realize that I would need to assemble it. However, when the box arrived, we were literally test-driving it in about 30 minutes (and that was after bundling the kids up and getting out the door!)

in the stroller

Dave and I (and Nora) are all loving the new double stroller… however there is ONE thing I’m not 100% thrilled with — and I knew this before I purchased it.

The sunshades are not technically “full coverage”, so if the sun is at a really low angle, it’s difficult to block it out. You can detach the sunshade from the back of the seat and rotate it forward (and this would work really well for small children), however, Nora is too tall so when I detach the sunshade and rotate it forward, the back part is basically resting on her head — and I’m sure you can imagine she does NOT like that.

I’m honestly not sure why they wouldn’t have just added a little bit of extra coverage to the sunshade, but based on the fact that this stroller meets ALL my other criteria, I felt that I could deal with the sunshade. So far, it hasn’t been a huge deal. Nora is tall enough that the sun has to be REALLY low in order to get in her eyes, and Simon is still in his car seat so I can rotate that sunshade however I need to. Also, if it was really a big deal, I could simply flip the seat direction around so they wouldn’t be facing the sun.

All in all, we are beyond thrilled with our new stroller purchase and anticipate using it for many many walks in the years to come.

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Comments

  3. Carrie says

    thanks for a great review! do you think this stroller would work well for tall parents? i’ve had trouble with strollers not working well for me and i’m only 5′ 9. like my feet would be constantly hitting the bottom bar as i pushed it or the handles were so low i felt like i was crouching down. does dave ever push the stroller and does he come across any problems with it?

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      I’m 5’8″ so not too much shorter than you and I have had no issues. Dave is almost 6’4″ and he also has not complained. I’d suggest going to the store and actually pushing it up and down the isles to see what you think.

      Reply

  4. Laura says

    I am going to be in the market for a double stroller, we have our 2nd due in November. Do you put the stroller in your car? How well does it fold up? Thank you!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Hey Laura,
      I’ll be honest, I don’t get out much 🙂 So I’ve actually never put this stroller in my car to travel. I have tried it in the car just to see if it fits — and it does. It’s a little heavy (but all double stroller are). This stroller is 35 pounds and most of the other ones I looked at were more like 40-50 pounds.

      It does fold up relatively flat — especially if you’re using the car seat adapter in place of the 2nd seat. Oh, and if you want to “test drive” it, you should be able to do that at most Buy Buy Baby stores (that’s what I did)
      Hope this helps and good luck with baby #2!

      Reply

      • Laura says

        Thank you! I value your opinion and will probably buy this one. Thank you for doing all the work for me!

        Reply

        • Andrea says

          I hope you love it too!! Just a word of advice, if you can, order it from a store like BuyBuyBaby or Baby’s R us because then you can more easily return it if for some reason you don’t love it. It might be more challenging to return it if you buy it form Amazon or another website.

          Reply

  5. twinsmom says

    Andrea,
    I have the same stroller for my twins in red color from Burlington factory. It was $210 …with 20% coupon I paid some $175+ with taxes….Really very happy with this purchase.
    Enjoy your new stroller!!!
    Twins mom.

    Reply

  6. Nicole says

    We recently purchased this stroller too! I actually got it for my toddler and new baby (due in Sept) but my 5yo likes to ride in it for now. He’s just pushing the weight limit, but is still fairly comfortable in it! You’ll definitely get a long life out of it! The only issue we’ve run into is the screws that hold the push bar in place get loose. We’ve already lost one and had to figure out a replacement, so keep an eye on that!

    Otherwise, we LOVE it. I’ve bought and sold several double strollers throughout my parenting career and this one is no contest. It is the hands-down absolute best stroller. Even with the couple of complaints I have about it (it’s not so easy to hop in and out of–at the zoo or at Disneyland or something, I have to detach the seats in order to fold it flat enough to fit in my trunk, and even then, it baaaaaarrrrrrrrely fits), I still think it is the best double stroller out there. The pros definitely outweigh the cons for our family.

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Yes, I actually noticed that those screws got a little lose but figured it was just my stroller. Weird that it’s just a “defect”. Thanks for letting me know and good luck with baby #3!

      Reply

    • Andrea says

      Yes, she has sunglasses — but she doesn’t really like to wear them. She also has a hat (but doesn’t like that either!)

      Reply

  8. Eric West | Rethinking the Dream says

    That looks like a great stroller. It seems like it shouldn’t be so hard to find a good stroller, but it is. I’m glad you were able to find one that met all your needs.

    Sometimes you have to buy new and sometimes you have to spend a little more to get good stuff. As I started moving towards a more minimalist lifestyle, I realized that it’s worth it to spend more to get something of good quality. Minimal and simple doesn’t always equal cheap.

    Reply

  9. Leigh says

    We love the kids facing each other position too. My big one would compare his feet to th little ones. For th sunshade issue, look to a protect a bub. It Velcro on to make the shad Much bigger and ours worked great until our strollers cam out with. Retrofit sunshade.

    Reply

  11. julie says

    This stroller looks great! It’s tough with 2, but so worth it to get out and about (until the oldest also wants to get out & about, ha! ha!)

    We opted for the double Bob stroller, and although i nearly fainted at the price, we got almost 2/3 of our investment back by selling it on Craigslist (and trust me, Bob strollers in good shape are guaranteed to sell fast).

    While i didn’t run with it nearly as much as i thought i would (who was i kidding?), it tackled our bumpy sidewalks around town beautifully. I hated using our original Graco stroller because it was constantly getting hung-up on the uneven terrain. The other bonus was that we could easily use it on trails and dirts roads too. I had been worried that i wouldn’t be able to get it into the trunk of my Toyota Corolla, but that was never an issue and it’s surprisingly light. (Gosh, i miss that stroller!)

    Reply

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