Is the Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller Worth It? An Honest Review
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Is the Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller worth the $499.00 price tag?
This stoller saw some serious action in our family, with years of adventures to Disneyland, hikes, stores, day outings, trips, and more.
The Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller is one of few strollers that can seat three children, so if you have three little ones, this may already be on your radar.
I have two kids, but it was still great for us to have an option for a third to hop on the back for walks and travel with friends. As children get older, too, they can get restless seated in a stroller, but still be too tired to keep up walking, and sitting or standing on the little child step on the back of this stroller can be a great compromise.
Here’s everything to think about when weighing the pros and cons:
The specs:
- Price: $499.00
- Dimensions: 57.8 x 21 x 41.8 inches
- Stroller Weight: 40 pounds
- Additional features: made of recycled materials, child tray and car seat adapters included
- Available on Target and Amazon.
The Pros
The Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller is the baby equivalent of a shiny new sports car, and elicited constant reactions everywhere we went. We could only make it a few steps before someone would ask us where we got it, what the brand was, or “Wow, I need THAT.”
Storage
Space is often an issue with multiple small children, luckily there’s plenty of it with the Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller. The storage basket underneath the seats is 33″ L x 13″ W x 7″ D and can hold up to 10 lbs!
Here’s a sampling of all that we packed in this stroller in one day: meals for the adults, bulky coats for the entire family, multiple cold packs filled with Comotomo bottles of milk, baby-led weaning snacks and drinks for everyone, multiple diaper bags with Coterie diapers, multiple changes of baby clothes for both children, baby blankets for chilly nights, ointments, sunscreens, diaper creams, toys, books, and more. It can really be a complete traveling circus.
My aching shoulders and back thanked me profusely every time I took off a backpack or a diaper bag and put it in this stroller. I used this in conjunction with baby wearing, and it was effortless to switch off from one to the other.
It’s ideal for anyone who has family members with special dietary or other needs, because it’s so simple to bring anything you might need with you. This thing is a BEAST.
Canopies
The shaded canopies worked beautifully to keep the sun off our little ones’ sensitive skin. The canopies pull down and become a great way to help a child recover from over stimulus on a long day out traveling. After recovering in their own little cocoon, our children would burst out, refreshed and restored, and eager for more adventure.
Moving in crowds and stores
The tiered seating gives you a huge space advantage, width wise. Usually a double stroller is much wider than a standard one, but with the Joovy Big Caboose, you are still narrow and can squeeze through any standard door. This is nice in crowds, stores and in lines.
Snack trays
The snack trays are ample and easy to clean, with beverage holders with good depth. Keeping them happy and entertained was so simple when they had an array of healthy snacks to nibble on – They were my children’s favorite feature.
Seating
The seats are thin and don’t seem like they would be that comfortable, but both my children loved being in them, and they dozed off on peaceful naps.
Cons
As much as we loved this stroller, there’s truly no perfect one out there. There are some cons to weigh as well:
Accessibility of storage
Reaching the storage compartments underneath the seats, especially in the back, is not easy, so I always put less needed items in the far back. I also bought a couple S hooks for the stroller so I could keep a backpack and diaper bag on the hooks on the stroller’s handle.
Storing it in your vehicle
If you are a family with a smaller SUV or a smaller car, you may find it a little tricky to fit this behemoth into your vehicle. We had a Subaru Forester when we started with the Joovy Big Caboose, and we really, really struggled to get it in there. It ended up extending over the cargo area from the back towards my children’s heads in their seats, which didn’t make us feel the safest. We semi-joked about strapping to the top of the car.
When we later got a larger SUV, we had no trouble getting into the cargo area, but if you are dealing with a smaller size SUV or sedan, you might want to carefully check the specs on this. This is a LONG, LONG stroller, and even when it folds up, it’s still very long. The Uppababy Vista or Nuna Demi grow can also hold multiple kids, albeit not with the same comfort and forward facing ability.
Wheels and varied terrains
The wheels on the Big Caboose are on the smaller side and are not rugged, so this is not an all-terrain, off-road stroller like the Guava Roam or Thule Urban Glide. It’s great for neighborhoods, paved sidewalks and roads, amusement parks, zoos, and paved hikes. It’s not going to go far over dirt, or even rough patches of asphalt.
Downside of tiered seating
The tiered seating became a bit more of a challenge for us once we left the infant phase and our little ones became mischievous toddlers. Suddenly, aiming a good square kick to the back of the head of the sibling seated below became the most entertaining new sport of all.
Navigating and pushing it
Navigating the Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller is a bit like driving a boat or an ancient Cadillac — it’s bulky, and doesn’t turn on a dime. It takes some effort to push it. I pushed this stroller after giving birth, and also after a major surgery, and neither was easy.
Collapsing the stroller
At Disneyland, we had a hard time after the fireworks or park closures, waiting for lines for the elevators in the parking structures for an hour or more. We watched with exhaustion and envy as stroller-free people, or people with teeny tiny little strollers, whizzed up instantly on the escalators.
The Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller is NOT an easy stroller to instantly fold up and carry with you, so escalators, shuttles, buses, trams – anything that might require you to fold up this stroller, becomes a little tricky and takes extra time. Also, if you are using the storage area to its full capacity, there’s no way can you suddenly carry all that stuff in your hands, along with your exhausted or sleeping babies.
This stroller has a supposedly foolproof lever mechanism, but I often struggled with it. In the end, when this stroller died, it was because I was stuck in a parking structure and after one hour of struggling, I could not get the stroller to fold up.
It was the real end of an era for us, and even though in its old age it had become a little rickety, thoroughly applesauce stained, and harder to navigate, we dearly missed it.
Final Thoughts
Although the Joovy Big Caboose Triple Stroller isn’t ideal for every scenario – does a stroller exist that is? – it’s by far the best out there for those who want seating for three. The storage and seating options are unbeatable while still offering a sleek shape and design.
Though it can be bulky, we dearly loved ours and used it often.
If you have 3 young children, or even two like we do, I highly recommend this stoller for big days out, toddlers who want options, and ultimate storage space.
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