Not sure I can answer all your questions, but hopefully I can give you some information. We love the Vistana resort and are staying there again in December (the week before Christmas week). All units have been refurbished and are lovely, so there is not a bad section IMHO. The remodel was a total gutting and rebuild (a really good remodel.)
The units typically have two bedrooms, one with a king bed, one with two double beds. There is also typically a sofa sleeper in the Living room / dining room area.
It's a huge resort resort with several different sections. The only resort we've stayed at that is even larger than this one is Orange Lake. Usually it's easy to walk to the pool in your section and the pool perhaps in the next section. After that, if we want to try another pool area, we usually will drive the car over. Sure you could walk, but you are crossing roads, etc. that aren't really meant for pedestrians to cross, so just be careful. To walk from one end of the resort to the other is maybe a two mile walk. Up and down maybe a mile, or a mile and 1/2 if you count the Fountains section and other two out there section.
Here's a good map:
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=886044
For other eating options right at the resort there is the Cascades Bar and Grill is nice. That's the only place there where I've gotten food and I remember thinking the food was good. They also have fast food choices: Pizza Hut and KFC. I think they even do room service for fast food choices. On the map it looks like there might be something called the Coral Reef Café?? I haven't been to that. If you have a car, it's easy to get to other restaurants in the area too. There is a lot close by.
With the full kitchen we like to have breakfast in, snacks in, and usually prepare sandwiches for lunches in the parks too for Disney park days. We usually eat most dinners out. On a seven night trip we typically cook dinner in twice, do salad and take out pizza for dinner once, eat counter service dinners in the park twice, do a nice Disney table service dinner once, and maybe eat somewhere like Sweet Tomatoes once.
We visit Orlando a lot. One of the things that really makes the Vistana stand out over other timeshare resorts for us is the great landscaping and nice views you typically get from your balcony or patio (no parking lot views here). They have little man made lakes with fountain all over and have designed their buildings so that almost every unit has a nice water view. This will be trip number 35 to Orlando for me. We like to switch things around a bit, but FYI, this will be my fourth time staying at the Vistana Resort, and I'm really looking forward to it. Great choice I think, and I hope you really like it.
Other comments: They have planned activities which can be kind of fun. We are also a big tennis playing family, so the fact that they have nine clay tennis courts plus some hard courts too is icing on the cake. My teens love it that they keep the pools open till 1 a.m. Most other resorts close them at 11. The 1 a.m. time, means we can close out a Disney park and still take a swim before going to bed. Everyone likes the resort so much, so often on a seven night / six day stay, we only do three theme park days. There are just so many great attractions and world class theme parks in Orlando, though. Many people I think are mostly just at their resorts to sleep, and I certainly understand that. If we didn't get to Orlando as often as we do, it would be hard not to schedule a major attraction every day.
I don't know about transportation, as we always get a car in Orlando, even if we are staying on Disney property, as there is too much offsite that we just have to do on every trip and unless we are staying at a monorail resort, we find taking the car is faster than Disney buses or water transportation lol
