I wrote a prequel to this post about how to choose your pram in four easy steps. And those are the exact four steps we carried out to pick ours. Practice what you preach and all that.
Picking the pram
We decided we wanted a travel system, so we wanted a car seat that would slot into our pram base. Before we even hit the shops, we looked on Which at the top rated travel systems and also shopped around for some online deals to see what prices we could get.
So off we trotted into Mothercare, armed with our notebook and pen. From what we’d seen online, we thought we wanted the Nuna Mixx and I had even found a deal online where I could get the whole travel system for £650. But as soon as we tried it out, we realised it was far too heavy and bulky when it was collapsed.
Finding one in budget
We looked at every travel system in there that was within our budget. The cheapest one we looked at was Mothercare’s own, the Journey. I think it was maybe about £350 for the pram and car seat and the pram was from birth.
We also looked at some systems that were well over £1,000 which is quite frankly a huge amount of money and too much for us. I just wanted to see whether a bigger budget got you a much better system but I couldn’t really work it out. Certainly the ones we briefly looked at weren’t immediately easy to use.
Choosing the Uppababy Cruz
We came across the Uppababy Cruz and Vista and had a look because they were top rated on Which. I liked the Cruz but it was £750 just for the frame and rumble seat, so too much for us. As we drove away, I had a quick look to see how much they were going for on Gumtree and there was one in navy blue for £250 for the rumble seat and frame and it said it was brand new. I got in touch and we ended up buying that one! We knew we’d be sacrificing the proof of purchase and therefore the warranty but we figured it was a good enough saving to make up for that.
We then bought the bassinet separately (which was an eye watering £230 from John Lewis) and the car seat and base (we went for the Maxi Cosi Pebble and Family Fix base but that saga is worth a blog post of its own).
Now, almost a year into using it, I thought I’d give an honest review of what it was really like.
The best bits
– The Uppababy Cruz is compact, so you don’t struggle to get through doorways and it doesn’t take to loads of room in our hallway.
– It’s really lightweight, which means it’s super easy to manoeuvre. It turns on a sixpence, as my Mum says. The frame is easy to pick up once collapsed because it’s not heavy.
– It’s easy to collapse and put together again, although it can’t be done with one hand if you think you’ll need to do that.
– The basket underneath is a good size, with plenty of space to chuck in my shopping and any other bits and bobs I take out with me (rain cover, spare muslins, blankets, food, water bottle etc.)
– It looks good. And don’t tell me that isn’t important, it is! It isn’t clunky, it’s streamlined and comes in a whole choice of colours.
– The handle is comfortable to hold and importantly it’s adjustable, a feature we use all the time as the husbear is taller than I am.
– The bassinet and the rumble seat have built in UV shades that you can pull down to protect your baby, but can quickly be folded away too.
– The bassinet can be used to sleep overnight in as it is ventilated, which could be useful when baby is little (although we didn’t use this feature).
– The bassinet also collapses flat, which is great for storage.
The worst bits
– I kind of feel like the wheels are a bit flimsy. The Vista is most definitely sturdier, but also wider and a much bulkier frame. I feel like if you had the Cruz frame with the Vista wheels you’d be laughing! Sadly they’re not interchangeable though.
– Related to the flimsy wheels maybe is the lack of suspension. I can see that Uppababy have tried to make the Cruz the pram for city dwellers and the Vista for country, but there are lots of kerbs and stones to rumble over in a town and some suspension would help with that. I just have to tip the front wheels up by pushing down on the handle, which is tricky if your pram is full of stuff.
– It’s great that the bassinet and the rumble seat have a built in UV cover, but for me the rumble seat hood is not long enough. When the seat is fully reclined, e.g when Sebastian is sleeping and I want to cover him the most, the hood doesn’t cover enough of him, even with the extra UV bit out.
– Let’s not deny, the Cruz is an expensive pram! Bought new, it’s £750 for the rumble seat and frame, an additional £230+ for the bassinet and then even more for the car seat. We definitely couldn’t have afforded it without getting a good second hand deal.
– The accessories are also super expensive (things like a cup holder, foot muff etc.) so we’ve ended up buying universal accessories that luckily still fit.
Overall, I am pleased with our travel system choice and it will see us through another baby, given it probably isn’t that long until Sebastian will move into a buggy. There are definitely improvements that could be made but I’m guessing no pram is perfect and it’s just something you learn once you use it day in and day out!
Are you happy with your pram? Would you recommend it? Is there anything I’ve missed about the Uppababy Cruz? Let me know!
JH