The walk from the big hat at the edge of Disneyland Hotel property and DownTown Disney to the center of the Esplanade is about .46 mile when I mapped my approximate, usual, walk using mapmyrun.com.
Walking through DTD is NOT fun for me. It's a mall. Yep, with Disney music and performers in the evening and whatnot, but it's still a mall. NOT fun for me. Plus there's no way to walk a straight line through it. It's very flowy, with planters and benches and such, so you're constantly having to go around things. That drives me batty. If you like malls and like walking in a curvy line, it'll be bliss for you.
To compare, the walk to the center of the esplanade from the Tropicana's sidewalk is about .26 mile, no mall, straight walk. HoJo, walking on the Disney side, coming from the outer edge sidewalk, is approx .49 if I'm remembering my numbers accurately.
PPH is just about the same distance; you do need to ignore the "PPH to Disneyland" signs, and just go out the FRONT door, cross to the Grand, and go through there.
The Grand's exits to DTD (going to DL) or their entrance to DCA, of course, are closer than anything. But if you have the room we had, the total walk to the center of the esplanade is actually almost the same as from hojo's parking lot. (man that was a pain of a room)
For me, b/c I don't like the mall, I actually feel MORE immersed if I stay at hoJo and walk along Harbor on the Disney side (not the hotels side). Why? Because if they have the music playing in Disneyland (if the park is open), I can hear the music. Without the mall experience.
Of the Disney hotels, I like PPH the best. DH likes DLH. DS, I believe, likes the Grand, b/c he has forgotten how long a walk it was to our room, and just remembers that the actual hotel entrance is close to Grizzly...he's forgotten that he was nearly blue by the time he got back from Grizzly to the room to change clothes, and was nearly crying. It would have been better to just bring clothes and have him change in the nearby bathroom, than to think "oh we're so close" and have him walk all the way back to the room. DH was freezing too.
For me, the main value of the Disney hotels is the extra Magic Mornings! Those are lovely.
I don't like charging to the room at all (at any hotel), and I have never successfully had any purchases delivered to the hotel, as each time I've tried, they are out of the paperwork they need to do it, and want me to go to a different store. Since I've tried to do this in order to "out of sight out of mind" a purchase for my son, if we leave wiht the items, the point is gone. The last time we tried this was '07, so maybe they don't need paperwork anymore (they have since gotten more functional keycards and maybe it's computerized), and DS is older and easier to reason with, so it might work like a charm now, but then is when I needed it and it didn't work.
I have NEVER seen characters in the lobby of the disney hotels, apart from Santa at PPH. Once.