Graco RoomFor2 Stand and Ride Classic Connect Stroller, Metropolis

CUSTOMER REVIEW



**SEE BOTTOM for UPDATE (still POSITIVE) after owning this for 7 months**

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For the price, and the "pound for pound" value (no pun intended, since this is actually one of the lightest doubles out there too!), this is the **absolute best double out there** I have a son who's almost 32 months old, and a 6 month old daughter. It is easy to fold up, it is as light as you can get (easy for me as a guy, and reasonably easy for my wife and our nanny who is small). It's not small, but I was able to fit it yesterday in our mid-size sedan's trunk, when it already had a large duffel bag and some other stuff in the trunk. It's under-seat storage is easily accesible, and the cupholders are great also. My son loves standing on it, which we did not expect, because as he gets closer to 3 years old, he can be a little whiny :) But when he's tired, he likes sitting too. Further, my 6 mo old daugher is still obviously in her car seat (a Graco SnugRide 32), and that seat fits quickly and simply into this. I was worried from some reviews and the pictures that when the car seat was in, my son would find it more difficult to sit on the bench, because the car seat foot-end juts out a bit, and my son is in a phase where he finds his baby sister a bit annoying, so I was worried her feet might bother him, etc: the seat *does* jut out a bit much, but my son (who is about 38" tall) didn't even notice. And once my daughter is out of the SnugRide, and we're not carrying her car seat everywhere, the built-in seat is great for her: we've already used it with her, and it's fine. It's not all luxury cushy, but it is perfectly acceptable.



I spent a great deal of time looking at all the doubles out there, eliminating very quickly all the side-by-sides, which I find offensive to the sight, particularly when I see people navigating them through narrow aisles in stores, etc. Ugh. So we knew we wanted a front-to-back style that takes up no less horizontal space than a regular stroller. Then after reading all the review of the high-end models, it seemed clear that most of these strollers are: 1) quite heavy; 2) not easy to fold; 3) notwithstanding their $250-400+ pricetags, still with annoyances of their own. So then I went shopping at a lower pricepoint, and found the 2 Graco double strollers, the "Room for 2" (the one I am reviewing), and the "Ready2Grow" version that costs an extra $70. I strongly advise picking the Roomfor2 over the Ready2Grow, for the following reason(s): I went to a physical store and tried out the more expensive Ready2Grow - it is a behemoth. I did appreciate that it had 2 removable/interchangeable cushiony seats, and not just a bench, so I could see that in the short-term, when my son is still enough of a "baby" that he can go into the toddler seat, it would be a tad more comfy for him. But at what price (and I don't mean $$). The thing is GIANT and HEAVY, and it is absolutely DIFFICULT to fold down and unfold....I couldn't even figure out how to unfold it, once I had folded it up! **I'll save you some time, too: take a look at both product videos on Amazon. They both look great, right? BUT, notice that when the smiling Mom is using the Ready2Grow, and about to do the alleged "one hand-fold" of the product, the VIDEO CUTS AWAY. HAHAHA. That's because they wouldn't want you to see that when it folds down, it is HUGE, bulky, etc. I don't see how most people are fitting that in a trunk -- even many SUVs. Meanwhile, the video for the the Roomfor2 *does* show you the full 1-handed fold-down of the stroller, all the way to the ground, and it is *compact*, reasonably light to carry, and simple.



For me, it was a no-brainer -- and now that we've been using it for 3 or 4 weeks, we couldn't be happier. Good luck!

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***UPDATE*** 7 months later: So my son is now 3.5 years old (an almost 2 inches taller!), and my daughter is almost 15 months. A commenter asked me to update my review, and now is the perfect time: we just got back from a week in Orlando/Disney (right before the east coast blizzard, luckily!) We brought this as our only stroller for the 2 kids, and it performed like a champ. It remains VERY easy to fold and stick in the trunk (and for what it is, it's really relatively light), and also note that we had a rented a Nissan Altima, and there was plenty of room in the trunk for 2 big suitcases and this stroller. Further, after navigating Disney World, I can only reiterate that I would NEVER want one of those side-to-side strollers...no offense, but I find them obnoxious, taking up so much horizontal space, tough to walk around, etc., etc. On one day, I actually noticed someone with another front-to-back model, but it was one of those expensive $300-400+ jobs. I remember looking at it, and noticing that it looked pretty darn similar to ours - and then I remembered that not only did they pay an extra $200+ for it, just go read the reviews of all of these, and there were serious negative reviews of the more expensive ones --- far more than for the Stand and Ride! So I did an inappropriate mental whisper of "sucker!" and went on my way. :)



Some other observations/caveats: 1) sometimes we still had my daughter in her car seat (like when we went through the airport), and in those cases, if my son is sitting in the seat (facing the person pushing the stroller), he's now tall enough (almost 40") and she's now big enough that her legs/feet extend past the lip of the car seat, and if she feels like it (and she did a few times), she can give a good kick to the back of my son's head. Likewise, when he's standing up, and she's in the car seat, she's a sitting duck if he feels like giving her a smack/push, etc. But such is life with 2 children 2 years apart, I guess! My son is relatively mellow enough that he didn't mind the occasional kick (or at least, didn't respond with overwhelming retaliatory force!)



2) Also, there have been times where my son (he is 3.5, remember) finds it funny to use his feet to hit the brakes of the stroller, which is annoying. But kids can find various creative ways to hinder your forward progress no matter the stroller you use, and he soon learned if he did that, he would have to walk with us instead of ride (and if I was in a real hurry, I'm big/strong enough to actually lift the whole thing up and just push it only on its front wheels so that the back wheels w/ brakes don't even have to roll...but some people might not be able to do that). In any event, it still wouldn't cause me to blame the stroller, and every front-to-back stroller would have this identical problem.



3) You really should buckle up your bigger child when they're sitting in the seat facing you. We have had a few near-"incidents" where he just hopped on to the part of the stroller where he can stand or sit, and we were lazy and didn't buckle him in when he sat down. In one instance, we were rushing to catch the monorail at Disney, and my wife grabbed the back of the stroller to lift it into the train (creating a 30+ degree angle from the front of the stroller) -- he wasn't buckled in, and went tumbling under the handle, onto the ground. He was fine, but startled...and obviously that was our fault for being lazy. There were also one or two times while I was pushing the stroller at a fairly quick pace where he didn't realize he couldn't just step off the stroller onto the ground! Suffice to say, we're now much more diligent about always buckling him in when he's sitting, and he learned you can't step off a moving object without consequences.



Overall, I still highly recommend this stroller. Great price, great performance.