I have stayed a couple of days at Richard (before a week at Tournier). The minibus on call is apparently very reliable. In addition, the bubble from Le Raffort up into Meribel is only about 500m away. As we were only there for a couple of nights, we never needed to make use of them - plus we'd arrived by car anyway.
Tournier (if there is any room there) is only a few 100m from the slope and you can then ski on down into the Chaudanne.
Give the people on my link a call and see if you can get space there. Food was very good when we stayed there.
Like you, Magic in Motion is an essential part of the holiday. How old is your dd1?
Ds was 5 last year and therefore still in the tinies class, so we had to combine it with the ESF creche (used to be called Jardin de P'tits Loups, now called Club Piou Piou) ie he had a two hour class in the monring, then we would attempt to ski with him for a wee bit and then have some lunch, before putting him in to the Club Piou Piou for the afternoon. They take kids from 3 -5, and also give them the basics in ski instruction (and for the older, more confident kids, even take them out on the slopes). We used the one at Rond Point, which seemd nicer than the one at the Chaudanne - although the Chaudanne one also includes the nursery for the 18month - 3 year olds.
This year he'll be 6 and so can go in the "ordnary" kids lessons with Magic in Motion, so gets 4 hours in the morning and then two full days - which will be great for us, as we don't mind skiing with him for four afternoons if we can get a decent ski in the monring and then two whole days where we can get a bit further. We'll also have the first Satruday to help him get his ski legs back and then the last Saturday to show us what he can now do! (We've managed to squeeze in 8 days skiing!)
If you need a nanny service or extra pick-ups, kidsetc is an option to look into.