UPPAbaby Cruz Stroller, Denny (Older Version) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I wanted to write a review of this stroller, since I know important of a purchase this is for many parents.This weekend we received our Cruz stroller and every time I go out for a walk, I want to hum the song from their web site. I think this stroller rocks. But....We have a 2 year old toddler and have been using City Mini since birth. I have recently developed tendinitis in the left hand and pushing and turning City Mini with one hand or pushing it on a rough terrain was getting a bit hard. After much search, I realized that squared off handle (like UppaBaby or Stokke or Mountain Buggy or Bugaboo) are easier to maneuver than half round handle like Citi Mini has.Also at 2 years, out baby is very talkative and I wanted her to be facing me, so we can chat on our walks together. There is less stroller options in Canada, so when I walked into a store and asked for an easy to push stroller, which is easy to fold and has option to reverse seat and folds down in 1 piece I was shown Stokke Scoot and Mountain Buggy Cosmopolitan.I loved Stokke, because it is a nice looking and well made stroller. Seams are perfectly executed (I work as interior and fashion designer so these details stand out) and fabric is very good quality. I loved the umbrella on the side and options of various fabrics for summer. Folding it down, seemed easy, but for my condition, these movements were too difficult. What I didn't like was smallish storage, only having 2 options for reclining the seat, too narrow seat and no snack tray. Overall when walking with stroller it seemed very stiff. What seemed the ideal stroller was Cosmopolitan Mountain Buggy. It folds beautifully easy, has nice big wheels, seat is ample and has a foot rest (Scoot doesn't have that either, which seemed like we would miss in the winter). It folded large, but my husband liked it enough to buy it. I didn't like the color options (IMHO denim is too dark for summer), so I kept on looking.Then a friend of ours let me borrow her UppaBaby Vista. And I loved it from the moment we took it out for a walk. What we both disliked was size and weight and how cumbersome it was too fold. But I was convinced I was on the right track. I looked at Cruz and was in love with the yellow and purple color choices. I decided to go with that stroller, since I had the experience with Vista already and on my visit to the store, I discovered that Cruz was very easy to fold down and operate. Unfortunately since you are not allowed to take the stroller on the street, you don't know how it will handle. Well, after 2 days of using it, I have to say that it feels rickety. Out Citi Mini was a much smoother ride compared with this. After comparing the Citi Mini and Cruz, I see that Citi Mini frame is fully covered with fabric and handle is covered with rubber. It may be also that wheels are different (although they are same size). Cruz frame is fully exposed. It feels to me that joints on the Cruz are not as snug as they should be (perhaps that is why Stokke felt stiff but may have been a better option).Our girl is not an infant anymore, so she probably doesn't mind, but I am disappointed that it is this wobbly on a city sidewalk. Oh and the cup holder seems like a waste of money, it turns upside down when I put in a cup of coffee. Luckily the first time it happened I had a closed cup, otherwise coffee would have spilled all over me or the baby. And yes, I went back to see the instructions to make sure it was installed properly. Maybe it is good for a very light cup, like container of bubbles.Pros:large storage basket- finally I can fit a box of diapers (I used to stuff it under my arm, or carry in one hand or on top of the canopy or my head, just kidding)easy to fold- it is no Citi Mini, but still pretty easy, it requires both hands to pull up notches on sides and press downfront and back facing- yes nice when they are an infant so you can check on them, but I think even more enjoyable when you can interact with your baby and point to squirrels and planeseasy to maneuver- squared off handle is easier than rounded handle like Citi Minilage canopyfoot rest with fabric at back (stoke has no fabric and kids legs are dangling or cold in the winter)Cons:the rickety feeling - frame feels "loose" or rickety when when using the stroller, I used to not care much when crossing the street with street car tracks, now they are super noticeable and the wheels actually dip and stop into the grooves, I was not prepared for thatOur first experience with Citi Mini was thru friends who had one. They gave us run down of how it folds and how it runs on the Paris cobblestones and gravel in the parks. We pushed it with their kid around town and basically knew what to expect. When you are a new parent and go to the showroom and push around a stroller on a very shiny and polished floor or even carpet, you do not get the same experience as you will in real life. I would say, it s best to find a friend who has the same stroller you want and ask them to take it for a ride to the grocery store. Fold it up a few times and pack it in the car while holding a bag of oranges (that will be your baby). Also try it out with few accessories you will need in the winter to make sure they will fit (JJCOLE Bundle me didn't work with Citi Mini and was a pain to keep it from sliding down).

Like a lot of parents, we spent a lot of time researching which stroller to buy, esp since it's such a big-ticket item. My sister has the Bugaboo Bee stroller for her daughter and loved it; I was put off by the price though. I had seen the Uppababy Vista stroller and loved it, but again, I thought it was pricey and I wanted something on the smaller side, that I could easily fold up. I went with the Cruz because I liked the price, and the styling and size seemed ideal.Overall, I like it, but I wish I and gone with the Bee after all. The pros: the sun cover is amazing and provides great protection. The basket below the seat is amazing and roomy and can fit everything (and we throw a lot of stuff in it). It folds out and breaks down easily and I don't have any problems getting it into or out of the back of our SUV. The other design element I really like is the mesh screen that allows air to circulate under the hood. It's very cleverly designed and stylish looking too.The cons, and they are pretty big cons: the smaller wheels make for a really lousy ride, even if you are on sidewalk pavement. This doesn't seem like a big deal (it didn't to me before I had the baby), but when you're walking around with a baby that has *just* fallen asleep, every bounce and bump seems like an earthquake. You also want something that feels stable and solid around your infant and not feel that any bounce will shake her out of the stroller. And this leads me to the other huge con: this is really not a stroller for a newborn. Oh sure, they have a newborn insert, but honestly, it's useless. The straps for the shoulders and legs were HUGE for our baby daughter, and as far as I could tell, there was no way to adjust them to make them as short as we needed (even when we had the straps at their shortest setting, they just hung there). I did find a way to shorten the shoulder straps *underneath* the seat, but that was a huge pain the ass -- not something you can do quickly on the go; and they still didn't make the straps short enough. I searched and searched the internet for a solution to what seems to me a huge design flaw and couldn't find anything; as far as I can tell, no reviewer talked about it either. I called uppababy to find out what to do, and they never called me back. So we have just jerry-rigged the straps so that they hold our baby in -- not an ideal situation and a safety hazard. Our kid is now nearly 5 months, in the 75% for height and weight, and the straps are *still* too big; we ran into another family using the uppababy and asked them how they handled the strap situation, and they replied that their daughter was nearly a year old before the straps were really workable.Our mistake was in buying the stroller off the internet *before* the baby was born; we should've held off on the purchase and taken her with us to buy the stroller and put her in it before committing to anything. Amazon is great for many things, but for something like this, it was not ideal.