If I were going tomorrow I would definetely stay at pofq again. It is small so the walk everywhere is fine. In the morning from the room to the food court and to the parking lot is a breeze.
Riverside is larger but I think they have parking lots for each section. The walk to the food court/pool can be long. I do believe that they have quite pools all around(no slides).
We went twice to the riverside pool because of the slide. Since your children are older than mine, I am sure that they will love riverside. french quarter is nice but for older children riverside pool is better.
There is a boat right outside of the foodcourt at riverside that takes you to french quarters and it leaves you off right by the pool there. You will not miss it.
The boat that goes to dd leaves you off at the rainforest cafe. It starts at 4:30 pm and last boat is at 11pm. If the line looks long stay on it. They will send more boats, just to get everyone home.
As for the buses, I only saw them by planet hollywood,but we never used them, so sorry I can not help.