Choices

[Canooknic]

If there are no health issues with your parents I personally would do the Disney trip and then start to plan a trip to your parents when you've been.

I totally understand the 'your parents won't be around for ever' line of thinking, but nor will anyone else! You never know what's around the corner, tragedy can happen to any of us at any time and if you can have some much needed family time for the 6 of you I would absolutely grab it with both hands!

We have a similar situation, all our boy's grandparents (and a couple of uncles/aunties) are in England but we have decided to have 1 more Disney vacation before focusing on taking them to England in a couple of years

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I see both sides of your dilemma. We are able to drive to WDW, and also able to drive to see my in-laws (my parents live in the same city that we do and we see them every few days). Even though we're driving distance to the ILs, we only see them maybe once or twice a year at most. We haven't been to their city in a couple of years as a family, although my husband has been to see them when he has a business trip in the same area, and they've been here maybe once a year. But I totally get what you mean about the kids being bored. Honestly, my ILs can't take a lot of my kids at one time. They're busy and active and my ILs are not. They watch TV all day. They're borderline hoarders and when we do go to their city to visit, they meet us at our hotel or at a restaurant - we rarely go to their house. So in some ways, it feels like a waste to drive 15 hours round-trip for us to eat three meals with them over a weekend. We have done most of the tourist things in the area with the kids and it's a struggle to keep them entertained between meals with their grandparents. So, overall, we've chosen family vacations over visiting the ILs the last couple of years. Sometimes WDW, sometimes other places.

In your case, I do think that I would prioritize a trip to see family, however, if your dad has never even gotten to see one of your children. Could you do a long road trip instead of flying and make a family vacation out of it? See some national parks or other fun things? If there's not much in their immediate area, I would limit my visit there to just a couple of days, and make that part of the trip.