Two things you need to remember:
1. Many people view the Internet as a place where they can anonymously complain about things so they feel important. They make up a screen name, find a forum to post on, and then attack whatever cultural icon the forum is focused on in every way they can conceive. On this forum, that's Disney. The malcontents complain because the only thing they can offer the world is their complaints, and they do so loudly.
2. The malcontents aggressively find every angle possible to criticize Disney. It reminds me a little of how the paparazzi follow around someone like Britney Spears and bedevil her, taking pictures of her from every angle and then inventing stories to go with the pictures to paint her in the worst light possible. The malcontents do this to Disney every day: actively searching for some new line of attack. If Disney didn't exist, they'd be attacking a TV show, movie, political party, athlete, or Britney Spears no doubt.
I think there's a third thing that some people who aren't necessarily malcontents with Internet obsessions just enjoy making complaining a part of their vacation. They probably have jobs they hate back home and might take umbrage with spending money to go on vacation. As the bills add up, they need a way to vent so they complain about how far it is to walk somewhere.
My husband has relatives like this. Mercifully, we see them only once a year at an annual picnic his family has. I call it "The Bellyache Olympics", held every year, and consisting of different competitions where "The Woeful Martyrs" of my husband's extended family recount their tales of woe from the last time we saw them.
* they had to walk "far" to get from their hotel room to a shuttle, as if their hotel was in Florida and the shuttle was in Georgia
* it was "boiling hot" every day...so hot that the entire state spontaneously combusted
* Disney was "taking money out of their wallet left and right"...as if someone was holding guns to their heads and making them buy this or that
On that last one -- which is a common rallying cry of the malcontents on Disney forums -- I just have to say that I spend $100 every trip I take to WDW each year on souvenirs. I collect fridge magnets, so I always get one of those, and I also collect tee shirts so I get myself one of those on every trip. That's usually about $45 right there. The rest I use to buy my niece and nephew one souvenir each that they get to pick out (after they tell me that it's something they are actually going to use and enjoy and play with or collect...and since they know they are only getting one thing each trip, they usually choose wisely).
We do the dining plan and I've never had to drop a cent more in the parks on food than what I already budgeted when I booked the resort reservations.
The endless complaining from the malcontents would make someone planning a first time vacation to WDW think there's no way a regular family can afford it, so I wish more people would pipe up and share their experiences on how they can make it affordable even when going often.
I think people with positive experiences and dispositions just must not be as vocal online as the malcontents.
One 30 minute wait and boom instant complaining until the sun went down and it cooled off and cleared out. Now, standing in line with him at our local fair (town of 1,500) for the one "thrilling" ride available (maybe a 6 minute wait), he complained AGAIN! I've come to realize some people are just like that...and that we won't bring along anyone on our family vacations
