Customer Reviews

Lilly Gold Sit 'n Stroll 5-in-1 Combination Car Seat/Stroller

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

My wife and I bought one of these almost two years ago. We first used it on a very long trip by air and by train. We've used it on subways, in restaurants, in cars and vans, and just to take the kids for an afternoon stroll. We've used it with my son and daughter from ages one to three; at four years old (and 36 pounds) our son is too large to find it comfortable, but it's still just right for our two-year old daughter (25 lbs). It's been one of the most useful things we've bought for getting our kids from here to there.

The Sit N Stroll works as a car seat and a stroller. With the shove of one handle the wheels pop out and lock in place or collapse back into the stroller. I manage to do this fairly easily with our daughter (25 pounds) strapped in. It's too heavy for my wife to do with our daughter in the seat, but she finds it very easy to set up or collapse when it's empty.

This seat fits into a standard coach airline seat. It straps securely into every car we've put it in, though not always without some effort. It restrains the child with a five-point harness that isn't easily opened by anyone under two (our daughter suddenly got very good at opening it a few months ago). A seat belt (with or without shoulder harness) fits easily over the front to hold the seat in place, and there's a strap at the top of it that clips to a small bracket that seems to be standard just for that purpose in most cars and trucks built in the last five years.

This seat doesn't have as much storage as I'd like; we always have to carry an extra bag with us. It also has smaller and harder wheels than do most dedicated strollers, giving it perhaps a less comfortable ride on rough surfaces and definitely making it harder to wheel it over some obstacles. It's much more comfortable for my wife to push than for me, because I have to bend over slightly to reach the handle; at 6'3" it gives me a back ache to push this with both hands for very long. I can stand straight when I push it one-handed, though, and it's pretty easy to do that.

None of those problems is serious. I love pulling up to a restaurant, popping the seat with our daughter out of the car, popping out the wheels, pushing it into the restaurant, and collapsing it back down and putting it on a chair. It's all so easy and it keeps our daughter under control the whole time. This thing was a lifesaver on our last long trip. The kids like it and seem to find it comfortable. With some more storage and a longer handle, I'd give it five stars.

Okay, I never do this but I had to review this after taking it on a trip to Mexcio with my 6.5 month old daughter.We got the sit and stroll for traveling since thew infant /kohlcraft combo seemed too small for our 26.75" 18 lb daughter.I traveled solo by car to Sacramento( 6 hours),spent four days running around, in and out of different cars,restaurants,parks, walking trails, department stores etc, then took two huge wheeled suitcases and flew to LAX and then to Mexico to meet my husband-all with the sit and stroll in tow.I needed no help getting in and out of the hotels/cabs/planes because the "one handed steering" is just that.I checked it at the gate each time and put her in the bjorn for everything else.She seemed to be as comfortable as the regular car seat and stroller we use.It was perfect, no extra space needed for a stroller, no gross high chairs at restaurants( and if she was alseep, I just put the handle down and nestled the stroller under the table).Also the toy bag that comes with is my permanent toy bag now-basic ,mesh handled thing that hangs off the bars.I also covered it really simply with some pretty lightweight fabric for warm weather.
Here are the down sides to the sit and stroll:
Not the prettiest contraption....(sorry,...vanity..)
Annoying to install, but not as difficult as some have said-put a rolled up blanket or towel underneath to stabilize or use the seat back in front of it(rear facing) to brace it.
On the heavy side to convert alone, but doable.I had lots of bruises on my arm from the bar on the back( I converted it alone for most of the trip, but I did it successfully every time without a whole lot of effort-squeeze and push down or squeeze and pull up).
Sunshade needs to be longer, I used a rayshade extender to supplement.
Wheels aren't cushy at ALL,so any traveling on unsmooth surfaces is not pleasant for you or baby-loud and rattling and bumpy-but for airports and hotels and malls and a day by the pool at the beach it is just fine-cobblestone streets are not so fun though.
that is it!

We purchased 2 of these for a month long trip to Europe with our then three and one year old boys.Since we were going to be renting a car as well as traveling by rail I thought these would be a great alternative to mucking aroung 2 carseats as well as a double(heavy) stroller.
We experienced our first problems after getting on the plane(they wouldn't fit in the seats as stated and had to be stowed,not really a big deal).The second problem(A big deal-during our second week there) was one of the wheel housings cracked ,and the wheel came off.Luckily my husband was able to duct tape it together and it held(barely) for the rest of the trip(You had to steer it a certain way or it would tilt).We called the company asking them if they could send one(wheel and housing) either directly to us( at a friends house) or to a relative in the States who would then mail it to us.We were told that it would take 3-4 weeks for a replacement wheel(Not Good Enough).
All in all it is a good concept,but the product needs to be made MUCH MUCH sturdier.

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!

It seems like a good idea. It did come in handy in the airport to be able to use it as a stroller and then a carseat on the plane. Also make sure to have the manual handy because our flight attendants had never seen one like that before and were going to not let us use it. But luckily we had our manual so they could read that it was FAA approved.

These are the negatives. Transforming it back and forth from stroller to car seat is not as easy as they make it look. Both my husband and I hurt our backs using it for a week on our vacation. Especially tranforming it from carseat to stroller s a pain. Because the movement is not natural for your body and you are holding a carseat with a baby in it. You have to hold the entire weight with one hand and push down and squeeze on a lever pretty hard with your other hand. You end up scraping your arms and hurting your back. What helped was lifting one leg perpendicular to help support the weight of the seat and baby and balancing all this on just one leg while you push down with your other hand. But you can imagine this is pretty awkward.

It was also really hard to install the carseat to be as tight as we wanted it to be in the rear facing direction. And it seemed like no matter how hard we struggled to get it installed tight enough, the carseat could still be pushed over an inch, which is what the manual said was the measure of how tight it should be. And on top of this, you kind of have to install it with your baby already in the seat in the car and that complicates it more with you struggling and pushing in 90 degree weather while your baby is sitting there and getting impatient and also restricting your movement while you are already in a cramped uncomfortable position in the backseat.

It was also really hard to tighten the restraint tight enough on our baby's body. There was a certain point where you couldn't tighten it any further and it just didn't seem tight enough for our 14 month old. Also pulling on the strap to tighten the restraint does not work well because there are so many contraptions underneath the seat because of the wheels, that the strap gets stuck on things down there and it requires you sticking your other hand down there and feeding the strap through so it can be tightened. And this is not easy. It's cramped down there so your hand does not fit well.

Though it was convenient in the airport, for the rest of the trip it's only worth it if you are going to be using it mostly as a carseat or mostly as a stroller so you don't have to be constantly installing it and unistalling it in the car or if you won't be travelling or moving around that much on your trip. We kept doing it because we had spent the money on it already and really wanted to get our money's worth and wanted to like it, but it ended with us both hurting our backs.

I tried really hard to like it, but I have to say it wasn't really worth it for us. It probably would have been better to just get a separate cheaper car seat and a really cheap lightweight portable stroller.

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.

We just took our first trip with this. It is a must-buy for any parent who travels regularly. We used to take our stroller AND carseat on every trip - and carry both through the airport - talk about cumbersome! But, we want our daughter strapped into a car seat in-flight, as well as be able to use our stroller for all the walking through airports. Now, we have one piece that does both! I found it to be easy to strap into airplanes or cars. The stroller pushes and steers well, despite a handle that does not extend high enough in my opinion. I will say that it's NOT easy to convert to a stroller from a car seat or vice versa with the child IN the seat. Our daughter is 27lbs and it's way too heavy and awkward to do that. Also, while my daughter doesn't seem to mind, I noticed that the seat does not have a lot of padding and it does not breathe - my daughter gets very sweaty when she's in it for a long time. Other than that, I'm satisfied with it and am so glad we got it. Makes things SO much easier! Anything that cuts down on the amount of stuff you need to travel with is a good thing, in my book!

This seat was the best purchase I have made for my son. We travelled to Hawaii and were dreading having to lug a carseat and sroller through the airport. I found this online and WOW am I glad I did. The stroller practically steers itself. There have been some complaints about the handle being flimsy, but it wiggles so you can steer it with one hand. I got a lot of jealous looks from other parents who were checking their strollers when I locked the wheels up and carried my son on the plane. It did not fit down the aisle (767 on Hawaiian), but no big deal. I have also read someone's review about it being for shorter people. I am 6'1" and my husband is 6'4". Neither one of us had a problem pusing it. THe handle has 3 different levels, maybe they just didn't keep the handle release pushed until it was fully extended. I wasn't completely thrilled with the strap placement in the carseat, but that is a small price to pay for the convenience. My son fell asleep in it and never even flinched when I took the seat out of the car and engaged the wheels. As long as you hear the click, the wheels are locked. The complaints I have read seem to be more from user error than product. THe only thing I would change would be the anchor system in the car. In a nutshell, I would give an absolute YES for travel, a no for every day use.

I share the same experience with one of the reviewers. Because of its design, in order to safely use this seat, the belt has to go over the baby where hooks on the handsets are. It makes it very difficult to get the baby in and out of the seat. I understand you can unhook it, but then it takes that much longer to secure it again and the less we need to redo it, the better it is, especially if you have more than one child to tend to or if you have a lot in your hands.

Anyway, even with the use of the belt over the seat, it is still unstable. It flops around. I can only imagine if the car gets hit by another car, this seat will not be able to stay put and therefore will fail to protect the child, which totally defeats the purpose of having a car seat.

The headrest if useless. It is awkward and doesn't fit any size of the baby's head. My son's head just bobbles around it and it hurts to see him sleep slumping over the shoulder straps. The overall cushioning feels very cheap as well. It is not very thick like most other car seats, even compared to the less expensive ones.

It is admirable that someone invented something that is supposed to be multi-functional and intended to make the lives of the parents' easier. However, when you try to be so many things at once, you will end up not good at either one of them. I would rather pay for the hefty shipping cost -- I am returning this seat for sure, after using it painfully for a week and giving it a reasonable "benefit of the doubt." I am just tired of it.

Not sure how many air miles we have put on this, but MANY! Yes, its a bit clumsy, but the fact that you can stroll to the gate AND she can sit in it during the flight is soooo worth it! The flight attendants do not see many of these, so its great that there is an "FAA approved" sticker on it. Make sure you show that to them so they don't make do gate check...