This tutorial describes the actions you can take once you receive a Disney dining reservation notification from MouseDining.com services.
Assuming you’ve created a free account, set some alerts, and have received some notifications of Disney dining availability, there are three ways to see dining availability. The first is through MouseDining.com’s Alert tab. Using the Alerts tab in the navigational menu, you’ll see all your active alerts. Any alerts with current availability will display “Reservation Available!” followed by the times available. Clicking on the times will redirect you to Disney’s website where you can complete your dining reservation.
Alternatively, and most commonly, you’ll be notified via email of the same availability. This email will come from support@mousedining.com with the subject line “MouseDining.com found reservation for [RESTAURANT NAME]. Simply open the email and follow the link besides the date and time to also be taken to Disney’s website where you can finalize your dining reservation.
Lastly, paid subscribers can receive text message notifications. The first link will take you directly to Disney’s website, and the second will take you back to MouseDining where you can mange your alert and account details. Regardless of your notification method, MouseDining sees and triggers a notification to be sent to all users with matching alerts within milliseconds – practically instantaneous. However, some email software and cell phone carriers can delay messages from getting to you. Email software often “fetches” email from a mail server. Mail servers are like post offices for email and delivery is often instantaneous. Your computer or phone acts like your residence or home and most email software must go to the mail server (or post office) to “fetch” the email. This often only happens every few minutes (common intervals are 5-30 minute). The best way to combat this is via “push” email. In this scenario, the mail server (post office) “pushes” the email to your email software automatically as soon as it is received.
Text messages don’t have the same delays, but they are beginning to come under more scrutiny by cell phone carriers. As such, cell phone carriers may delay a message to scan its contents to ensure it is safe and not spam before delivering to its final recipient. In rare cases, I’ve seen a complete block from a carrier, but this is often temporary as the system adjusts for current circumstances.
Regardless of how you receive your notifications, MouseDining goes to great lengths to use services with the highest deliverability rates. This is an ongoing problem that we’ll continue to monitor and update users on, but in nearly ALL cases, MouseDining is NOT the source of any delay.
Finally, if you have any questions or need help with receiving notifications yourself, please use the contact form on the website or follow the link below and I’m happy to help.
This tutorial wraps up the core services of MouseDining and the remaining tutorials will be tips, tricks, troubleshooting, and other general information. Thank you for your ongoing support and I look forward to bringing more Disney travel tools & services to you that will help make your Disney vacation even more magical.
