~ The Man Report ~ ~ Virgin Duck Liver & Meal Sweat ~
We love dinner.
More than most even.
The best part of dinner is everyone getting together, relaxing, and enjoying a lovely Disney meal
with wine of course!
I have ADRs for every single night were in WDW except this first night when we arrive, and one night when I plan to take the family to ESPN Sports Zone for dinner (they dont take ADRs).
Dining Schedule
We have but a single problem with dinner: Moan Boy.
He never wants to go! His idea of a good evening is to stay in the resort room and send dad out to get Giordanos pizza or McDonalds.
Sheesh!! We drag his butt out with us anyway. Builds character.
Now, in October, there is no FREE dining like most of you received in September. Theres also no 400 mile an hour winds and torrential rainfall.
As an annual passholder, were allowed to join the
Disney Dining Experience ($60/year) which gives us
20% off food & drink at most Disney restaurants plus half price admission at Pleasure Island.
20% is a huge amount! Especially when you order a bottle of wine every night at dinner.
Our DDE membership ended up saving us close to $400 at Disney Dining establishments.
Thats a heap of snap by any measure!
Now, before you do the math (put your calculator away blue

) yes, we spent close to $2,000 on food, wine, beer, and other non-alcoholic beverages. I know, I know. Thats too much money.
But remember, our airline tickets were free, my rental car is free and 7 nights in our DVC resort are already pre-paid for 50 years.
So when you think about it, those three items essentially save us around $4,500 so were allowed to splurge a little, arent we?
Besides, were down here for almost two weeks!
Come on troops, agree with me here.
Anyway, back to dinner.
Our first night down
(Sunday, Oct 7), after we settle into our Cypress room, we decide to go shopping and forage for food.
Without an ADR, were forced to choose an off-site restaurant for our first meal.
One of the few places that sounded good to me was the Clakshin Indian Food Restaurant located next to TGI Fridays in the Crossroads Shopping area.
Now, before you turn on me, hear me out.
Where else can you go and eat while sitting on the floor? Everyone likes to eat with their hands, right? And of course, the Clakshin all-U-can eat dried llama & curry platter is fabled to be one of the best in the country!
Its also a lot of fun to sweat while you eat.

The way I see it, if youre not sweating during your delicious meal, then its obviously lacking spice.
I put Tabasco on pizza. I put pepper on popcorn (when not on the meat diet). I even purchase the spicy pork rinds and sprinkle Cholula Sauce on each individual piece.
Buzz likes his food spicy.
As you can probably guess, I was voted down on the Clakshun Fine Indian Cuisine even though I was VERY excited about it.
They just werent interested in my Cultural Experience argument.
TGI Fridays received the nod. Loud Girl was demanding Mac-n-Cheese and wasnt interested in spicy goat meat sautéed in virgin duck liver.
Heres the thing about Fridays. You get a consistent meal each and every time you go. No matter where youre at!
Even the service is fairly good. Not Disney-Good mind you, but fairly good.
Plus, theyve got gobs and gobs of sweet, delicious meat.
When all you get to eat is the meat, you need as much as possible to fill your belly. I dont get to eat the bread before the meal
or the garlic mashed potatoes
or the delicious garlic & buttered green beans.
I get the meat and I need a big hunk of it. The bigger the better.
So I order me up a delectable little 16 oz. Rib Eye and begin to smack and chomp away at it while occasionally taking a breather to slurp down some wine. Think hogs at the trough and youre not far off. (Hey, I even rhyme!)
Loud Girl pipes up, Daddy, I wanna bite.
Hoo boy.
Theres barely enough for me yet here my little baby girl wants a bite and I can rarely tell her No to anything.
Ok Baby, I reply as I whack a non-fatty chunk off for her.
mmmm, This is good!.
Oh no! She wants more! What am I going to do? LtP, the human garbage disposal, has already finished her 30 oz. Porterhouse buried in horseradish, so the meat my baby wants is going to have to come from my plate!
As I ponder my predicament, I feel the heat of laser beams coming out of my significant others eyes. Apparently, Im not responding fast enough to her childs request.
After my short pause and subsequent non-verbal encouragement from the wife, I determine to give up some more of my precious meat to the youngest member of the clan.
I can suffer. I know darn well theres a bunch of pork rinds and squeeze cheese back in the room. I can always go fill up on that.
Loud Girl finishes my steak for me, and her mac-n-cheese, and some of her brothers chicken strips and fries (must take after her mother), we pay the bill and shag out for Cypress.
Everyones completely satisfied, except me.
Next Up Locnar: Magical Sphere or Doom to the Universe?