We have owned and loved a handful of different premium strollers- an UppaBaby Vista 2011, a Baby Jogger City Select 2012 and now a Britax B-Ready 2012... wow that's a lot of trial and error. ;) If you're not interested in my intensive review of loves, hates and the in-betweens of these baby rides, please feel free to skip. ;)
With just one child {and no fear of price tags} the UppaBaby Vista would be my definite number one choice hands down! It's seriously a great quality ride for baby and a great value if you use all of the included accessories (especially the bassinet which I've heard many people don't get to use). The only "problem" came when I needed a second seat for the baby that I babysit. The smaller second seat for the Vista {their rumble seat} was only suitable for an older child because it has no recline and it sat really close to the main seat. We went to a local boutique to try the second seat and Hadley despised being in the rumble seat {she's usually such a happy rider} so I knew it wasn't meant to be. Hadley is my spoiled love bug! :) Who could blame her though since the main seat is amazing... After 10 happy months of happy ownership, we decided to go ahead and trade-in for a City Select.
The Baby Jogger City Select is also a very nice stroller {and we crazy love their City Mini stroller for travel}. The City Select is a full-sized tandem stroller with the option of using as a single or with two full-sized seats or with an infant car seat or a bassinet, etc, in a ton of different combinations. For my 'tester' kiddos who are 13 months apart, I thought the City Select would be just what we needed. It did work out well for us but the high price and overall length of the stroller were drawbacks since we only need the double 50% of the time and we were already spoiled by the supreme maneuverability of both the UppaBaby Vista and the Baby Jogger City Mini. The seats of the City Select weren't as configurable for a 16 month old and a 3.5 month old as I had hoped. The City Select was a front runner for me when researching because of its many configuration options BUT with one seat needing to be completely reclined to accommodate the little guy (the seats are billed as being for 6 months up but baby boy is BIG so he fit easily at 10 weeks), Hadley's seat had only had a few options. The distance between the seats wasn't my favorite since they honestly were really close together. My opinion is that this is an ideal ride for twins and a good (but not perfect) option for kids close in age. The length of the City Select made me feel as though I was pushing a traditional tandem stroller {think Graco Duo Glider} which was just not quite what I had hoped for.
Enter stage left:: the Britax B-Ready! I found out about the Britax Free Ride event and was immediately jealous of how great the price was in comparison to the City Select-- for the City Select, with all of the options that we had already added we were at a total of $762 {second seat, car seat adaptor, snack tray}. During the Britax Free Ride event you can score the B-Ready AND a second seat (or infant seat or bassinet) for $399 with a 20% off Buy Buy Baby coupon. Thankfully, I could still return the City Select to Buy Buy Baby where I'd purchased it back in late June and pick up the B-Ready with the free second seat-- easy as pie!
We've only had it for 5 days and I already LOVE it since it combines all the things I adored about our UppaBaby Vista as a single but it's better suited for two kids full time or as needed. The B-Ready has an amazing lower seat that is actually ideal for your smaller kiddo since it reclines to 4 positions (upright to completely flat for newborns). The lower position can also accept infant car seats which is amazing AND the stroller's push feels like a single even when fully loaded (just like the UppaBaby Vista and not at all like the long chassis of the City Select.... hated how long that one felt when pushing it even in single mode). Every other option that we've owned or tried has had the bigger kid defaulted to the lower seat which just is not what we're interested in.
Yesterday, we took both kiddos to a doctor appointment for Hadley and it worked amazingly well! My friend's little boy that I babysit was so happy the entire time in the lower seat (reclined, as he's 3.5 months) PLUS the diaper bag fits super easily in the basket with the roomy upper seat for our 16 month old. The fact that it folds up as compactly as the UppaBaby Vista WITH the second seat attached made me so very happy and satisfied! :)
Other details:
I got the silver/lightish blue color of the B-Ready as It was close to the Light blue Cole Vista color that I had loved having. The second seat I got (free!) is in black since I like that it blends with the black back fabric of the main seat and the black plastic pieces of the frame if that makes sense. *I love the "look" of the UppaBaby rumble seat and it's only in black so I knew that it would be visually good for me although Britax has matching second seats for each of it's available seat colors. The additional accessories I would still like to eventually add would be the Britax stroller organizer and the two adapter pieces to allow the Chicco Keyfit 30 to fit in the bottom slot.
Overall, if you are in the market for a full size luxury type stroller than can convert to a fully functional yet not enormous double when needed, I would highly recommend the Britax B-Ready. Please leave a comment or send me a message if you have any questions. :)
Image 1- The B-Ready folded with second seat attached fits into our compact car's (3-series coupe) trunk with lots of room. It is exactly the same size folded in the trunk as the single UppaBaby Vista in the same area.
Image 2- Our silver B-Ready with attached black second seat. Love it.
***Update*** We were really happy with the B-Ready until both Hadley and little Corbin decided that it was so uncool to be in the bottom seat. The B-Ready was returned to BuyBuyBaby and we are back to the City Select! We bought a used Baby Jogger City Select and all was right in the kingdom once again. :) For now at least! Turns out, the B-Ready is great for small infants but once they want to see stuff, the City Select's stadium seating totally wins.
