Yes there are closer hotels. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom by bus. But when you open the blinds in the morning, a giraffe is standing there! The kids love the animals, I love the animals. The rooms are pretty standard, decor in the lobby very nice. We tried two of the restaurants and both were good. Customer service was good for me, I didn't have any problems at all.

2 families with kids ranging from 13 to 8 stayed in 2BR in Kidani Village --villas are larger than other DVC villas we have stayed at before but the overall feeling is it was just Ok. Our room was far from the lobby, pool, buses so when we were exhausted after a day at the parks, we had a long walk from the bus to our villa. Upon arrival the tv was not working but it was fixed promptly. Bell services was great in delivering our groceries from an outside grocery service and the front desk was nice. Alot of people told me that the savanna view and resort was AMAZING and that we wouldn't want to stay anywhere else -- I was disappointed. Pillows were horrible, resort is far (very far) from alot of the parks (other than AK) so long bus ride. Long walk to rooms since the hotel is very large. Savanna view -- nothing more than the same few animals each day - if your lucky. I thought they would rotate the animals to see different ones but after the first day or so, this novilty wears off. Since you are not in the room alot, don't spend the money!

The concept of this hotel is amazing. The decor and the landscaping are first class. The problem with Disney resorts is crowd control. They charge like the Ritz Carlton but they do not offer decent customer service. Staff seem to be always in training, billing mistakes abound and you get locked out of your room just when you are trying to pack and check out. They really try but have not found the formula.

The kids liked waking up and looking up the window to see the giraffes and other animals walking around. The service was great, as expected of any Disney Resort. Unfortunately it was too far form Magic Kingdom, 25-30 minutes, more if you add the time you need to wait for the bus to come. I took my daughter to Tea with the Princess program at the Grand Floridian resort and took us 1 hour and 10 minutes to get there !!! Also, I did not like the set up of the bathroom.
I am glad we stayed there to experience the view of the animals, but now that we did, I don't think we will stay there again. We will probably keep going to the Polynesian resort.