For my part, I am very sorry for the experience you have had on this forum in your brief time here so far. I agree that you asked a question that should not really have provoked some of the nasty responses that you have received. It reminds me of the question that another poster asked as to whether tipping at the front desk helps get a requested location (as works in Las Vegas, New York, and so many other places around the world) and that poster was similarly lambasted by many subsequent commenters to the board.
It seems like some of the posters who have "answered" your question take personal offense to you even asking the questions to the point of asking if it is a "joke" or "troll" question when I find the question to be a fair one to ask since this situation - of arriving at MCO at a time which seems to be too late for one day but too early for another - probably happens a lot. And you did get many helpful comments as you noted, but the nasty ones seem to ones of posters trying to see if they can "up" each other in ways and wording to criticize you.
I understand where you're coming from because unlike apparently many of the other commenters, I don't think either or us live near enough to Orlando to be able to travel here by car for frequent trips nor close by enough to an airport that has a flight schedule that features an abundance of daily flights to MCO. So often the air travel I'm stuck with to get cross country to Orlando may not offer the ideal arrival time, but I try to do the best I can. No doubt you tried to get the best air travel times that you could considering flight times available within the time constraints of your husband's time off from work, but also still within an affordable price range of air fare open to you. Which probably led to the "off" time arrival of your flight into MCO. So you came asking for advice and even though the "staying in the hotel lobby" idea has turned out to not be a viable one, you were asking because you honestly did not know this because you (and I, too) don't make trips to Disney World as frequently as many of those who have posted on this board have luckily been able to. So their experienced advice is great, but looking over some of the actual responses posted, it really does seem like it turned into a "let's see who can think of the most cleverly nasty comment" contest.
With all due respect, this thread has NOT turned into a "let's see who can think of the most cleverly nasty comment" contest.
Seriously.
I've just read the thread from the first post to this one, and the vast majority (i.e., over 90 percent of comments) have offered helpful advice for the OP about 1) the fact that staying in lobbies overnight is not allowed, 2) staying in lobbies overnight, even if allowed (which it is not), is uncomfortable, 3) there are reasonable, cost-friendly options for getting a hotel rather than risking getting kicked out of a Disney hotel lobby.
There are only a small handful (and 'handful' is actually overstating it) of outright nasty/mean comments. Again, the vast majority of comments take the OP at face value and offer sound advice.
Of course, several of the comments basically say "staying in the lobby would not be allowed", a sentiment in opposition to the OP's original question. But these posters ALSO offer reasonable alternatives to staying in the lobby. Many of these poster also offer very sound advice in regards to the FACT that phone center cast members are not on site and should not be relied upon for on-the-ground information about Disney resorts.
Yet the OP continues to post somewhat argumentative replies to the helpful posters who took her original query at face value and offered reasonable alternatives to sleeping in the lobby. The OP seems to find it 'mean' that most posters agree that staying in the lobby overnight would be frowned upon (at the very least) by Disney security.
At this point, I do not think that I am being unreasonable for thinking the OP just might be trolling.
They might not be. But I am not being nasty or mean at this point to have doubts about the OP's intentions, especially since post after post after post of helpful advice is basically ignored by the OP, who seems to want to respond defensively (and out of proportion IMO) to the few negative posts rather than taking the helpful advice of the majority.
Also, in my several years here on disboards, trolls often hide behind "I'm new and I don't know as much as everyone else" when they try to provoke a response from the board.
In my experience, REAL people who are new and don't know as much as everyone else...well, they take the advice of those with more knowledge rather than argue and push back.
In my experience, TROLLS claim to be new and say they don't know as much as everyone else...but when offered advice from those with more knowledge, they ignore said advice and argue and push back and claim to know better than said members with vast more experience, and when they are called out for such behavior, they resort back to the "I'm new and don't know as much as you, excuse me for asking a question".
Read this thread from start to finish and seriously think about if it falls into the 'real people' scenario or the 'troll' scenario as outlined above.
(obviously just a joke)
