The last two years we've rented a condo at Glacier Canyon Lodge at Wilderness (look on ebay and I highly recommend Lise Bohm). It's significantly less expensive, includes admission to the waterparks, and gives you a full condo with a beautiful kitchen. We have three kids (9, 6, 2) and found the walks to be fine with a stroller. We never took a shuttle bus, just used the walkways.

I'd either consider Glacier Canyon or the Kalahari. Know that the condos in Sands are a long walk to the parks as well.

We too rent the Glacier Canyon condos off of Ebay and have had great success. I love Kalahari's water park variety. The Flow rider and drop slide are great. However, I prefer the actual condos at the Wilderness or Glacier Canyon better than Kalahari's. Kalahari tends to be pricier. Glacier Canyon is modern and spacious but can be a very long walk to the water park. (last time we had an end room and it took us almost 20 minutes to walk to nearest waterpark)

I am interested in checking out the rentals on eBay as you suggested but am not familiar with renting property thru eBay. How do I locate this person that you are recommending? Thanks!