Just to follow-up, we had an umbrella in the “far away” zone today. We asked about upgrading to a cabana; initially we were told that one was available. Only, this was cabana #2, which is the only cabana at this resort that is NOT a shelter (they let us know). We already had this cabana before, its location is real nice (it's the only cabana in the park that directly overlooks the lazy river), though the fact that it is not a shelter is a huge inconvenience to us. If we wanted a cabana that was not a shelter in August, then we'd go to Blizzard Beach. We finally declined it. (Long story short, there was no thunderstorms that day, so we would not have needed protection. If only this specific cabana was discounted, we probably would have gone for it.)
We adapted our planning to the location of our umbrella, and did just fine: we started with Miss Adventure Falls at rope drop (<5 mins wait), next Crush'n'Gusher, next all the other water rides that we were interested in. When we were done (at 11:30) we returned to the umbrella and used only the lazy river and the wave pool. With this agenda, we did actually enjoy the far location of the umbrellas. Since today was the day of the eclipse, and we had taken eclipse glasses with us, we spent an hour or two enjoying the event (and a beer). Also, my wife is a passholder, and it was convenient that the only restaurant in the water park that accepts AP discounts was just accross the reserved area.
@GADisneyDad14: as far as requests for cabanas/umbrellas go, we expressed ours to DSS for this trip. So far, none were respected. We have an umbrella at BB in a few days, obviously we requested one in the “inner island”, I would be disappointed if we don't have it (since we booked it so long ago) but I'm not seriously counting on it…