Lilly Gold Sit 'n Stroll 5-in-1 Combination Car Seat/Stroller
by Lilly Gold
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Lilly Gold Sit 'n Stroll 5-in-1 Combination Car Seat/Stroller
Customer Review: Useful but some drawbacks
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife and I brought the sit and stroll a while back and have used it on a number of occassions. It's an excellent idea and very functional. I have no problem converting it from a seat to a stroller and back again with our daughter in it, although my wife struggles with it a little bit.
For vacations, the sit and stroll is a godsend, I like the fact that it will fit with both car seat belts and has an attatched latch system (the latter of which I think is much more secure)
There are some drawbacks, these being:
1) The handle seems rather flimsy,
2) The stroller doesn't like being pushed off deep curbs. The front wheels seem to jam underneath it and it requires you to lift the unit forward with your foot before you can proceed,
3) Our child is of a size where she is between rear-facing and forward facing. We cannot put her forward facing right now because she is too small and the belt is at her throat (when it should be across her chest), but rear facing, her legs are scrunched up against the rear of the car seat. There is no way I can install it with her in it at this size which makes putting her in the seat difficult. This will cease to be a problem when she is bigger and forward facing, but it is a problem now.
4) I have no idea how you install this rear facing in an aircraft, there just isn't enough room between seats (certainly in economy class). Most airlines insist the seat is forward facing anyway and we have settled for latching the aircraft seat belt through the mechanism on the back of the unit.
5) I wish the guides that the car/airplane belts ran through were raised a little higher on the seat, when a belt is in place it runs very tight across my daughters legs or chest, restricting her movement significantly.
These aren't major gripes though. In all, we have been very satisfied with the seat. I would recommend it, it makes travelling with a little one significantly easier
Customer Review: Great for travelling
Summary: 4 Stars
I travelled with my 14-month old on my own with the Sit'n'Stroll and it worked beautifully. I was able to push the stroller with one hand while trailing a roller bag behind me with the other. It worked out beautifully on the smooth floors of the airports, but at our destination, I kept it in the car while using an inexpensive umbrella stroller for walking. The wheels aren't really up to handling rough or uneven surfaces and it's not convenient taking it in and out of the car constantly.
When not travelling, it has come in handy as a second seat to put in a rental car or carpooling to destinations in a friend's car.
With the baby in the stroller, it was a bit too heavy for me to convert, but I was able to with a little help. Your mileage may vary according to your strength. Until I got the hang of it, I got a few scraped knuckles converting from stroller to seat.
There are some build issues that keep me from giving it 5 stars. First, the plastic cover over the base cracked within the first week using it. It's cosmetic - the seat is still structually sound, but it's annoying and cheap, not to mention leaving a sharp edge. Also, the conversion is difficult to do smoothly, as my scraped knuckles will attest, if you don't have the brute strength to lift the stroller easily. Finally, with the wheels stowed away, the base of the seat is rather slippery and the flap covering the wheels, well... flap.
Most of these issues aren't a problem if you have the strength to heft the stroller with baby strapped in. Then again, the whole point of this stroller (for me at least) was to make it easy for a woman on her own to travel easily with the baby. In any case, despite the few issues I had with the Sit'n'Stroll I still highly recommend it for anyone travelling with a baby. It's the best solution out there!
Customer Review: Extremely efficient form of travel
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all, I must say this is not meant to be a consistant carseat or a consistant stroller. It is no where near as uitlitarian or comfortable as a conventional stroller or carseat.
That being said, for travel purposes, from someone who has travelled with her 5 year old all over the globe, this invention has been a lifesaver. It has saved us time beyond compare.
My first flight with my daughter, we had a regular infant car seat - you still need to carry it over your head through the isles on an aircraft. It was an international flight, and we had to run with a carseat - with an infant in it (NO FUN!!!)to then wait for the stroller to come through customs, and still miss our connecting flight.
We learned. Our next flight, all we had was our carry on luggage, diaper bag and the carseat/stroller. We took her out of the seat as we disboarded the plane and used it to carry our carry ons, and I used a kangaroo to carry her. SO MUCH EASIER, and quicker. Now we don't have to wait for the stroller to come off the plane, or the carseat for that matter. We also don't have to worry about requiring a carseat at our final destination.
I have had a few flight attendants, who are not familiar with the carseat, question the "allowability" of the seat on the plane. Make sure you keep a copy of the manual in the basket of the stroller to show them it is FAA approved. I have also had a situation of the stroller collapsing while we were using it once, but it could also be that we did not snap it correctly. Fortunately, it will not harm the child, even if it does collapse, because only the wheels come up.
I am overall pleased with the product. I have owned mine for 4 years, and everywhere I go I always get people asking where they can get one. The concept alone is sheer genius!
Customer Review: Great for traveling with an infant
Summary: 5 Stars
I was very nervous about buying this given all the negative comments I'd read but for lack of a better option I bought one and used this on a recent trip (by plane and car) with my infant son and it was a lifesaver. I'm a small person--weight and height--and I was able to change it from stroller to car seat with very little effort. I could also get it in and out of the various cars we used as well. It is not the easiest thing to get in and out of the car, but really, how easy is it to get a regular car seat in and out of a car? This is actually more convenient in some ways because the seat belt goes across the child so you don't have to worry about attaching it around anything, which is very helpful when you're doing a rear-facing installation. Plus, the stroller is easy to maneuver and despite the slightly rickety feeling of the stroller handle, it's really quite sturdy. I would recommend getting the sunshade for this if it doesn't come with the sit n stroll (mine did) since it not only protects the baby from the sun but also any rain or other inclement weather.
As for using it on the airplane, I held the baby on my lap so I didn't have to worry about getting the seat on and off the airplane and putting it in an airplane seat. However, I did check it at the gate and if you are going to do that, *definitely* get the travel bag. It was raining when we got home and the bag kept our car seat dry as it was brought up to the jetway. Plus, the bag protects the car seat from whatever else is in the airplane cargo hold. Also, you can still put the bag around the Sit N Stroll if you have the sunshade attached, which is great.
Overall, this was really, really helpful and I highly recommend it for people traveling with their children.
Customer Review: Fantastic for Travel
Summary: 4 Stars
I rarely write reviews but had to for this one. This stroller is absolutely fantastic for travel. I love it. I have traveled with my now 2.5 year old at least 8 times with it. I ditto everything in Rebecca's review. Most of the complaints I feel are user error or extreme fussiness. I wouldn't want to travel with my child any other way. It's so nice not having to deal with both a stroller and a carseat. To me, it's not a big deal to pick it up and carry it 20 feet down the airplane aisle. Sometimes I let my child out and have him walk so I don't have such a load. Really, it's not that much effort to take a minute to take him out and another minute to strap him in again once we get seated. My child now weights about 32 pounds and I have no trouble collapsing or opening the stroller with him it. I'm not very strong either. It takes a little getting using to, but practice before going on a trip. When he's been asleep upon landing, I've carried him off the plane in it, opened it, collapsed it again for the car ride, installed it, carried him into the house, and he's actually slept in it all night, without ever waking up. My only complaint about it is that the latch function should be improved and that's why I give it 4 stars. They should design a new version where the latch strap goes through the body of the seat somehow rather than over it, because it is a real pain having to install it every time. But for the other conveniences it's not that big of a deal for a week or so. What I do is just loosen the strap enough to get the seat out and leave the strap hooked. It's certainly not perfect but it's better than anything else, and the benefits for travel outway the negatives. It's not a behemoth either as suggested by another reviewer.