The Steamship Authority is postponing the start of its summer vehicle reservations after issues during early Islander bookings this week.
The ferry line announced the indefinite delay Friday afternoon, saying it had technical challenges Tuesday during the Head Start summer reservation openings for residents on the Vineyard and Nantucket. Summer reservations for the general public traveling to and from the Vineyard were supposed to open on Jan. 30.
Steamship general manager Robert Davis said new reservation opening dates will not be announced until an internal review is completed, potentially putting vacationers’ summer plans in limbo.
Several Islanders said they struggled to make it through the reservation system for preferred and excursion customers this week. The Nantucket Current also reported that Nantucketers experienced 504 error messages, non-working dropdown menus and long queues.
Early tests of the reservation system prior to opening did not show signs of concern, according to Mr. Davis.
“Each year our IT team takes preparing for these days very seriously, and they have been hard at work for several weeks performing multiple load tests of our reservation process and testing our waiting room product,” he said. “That preparation did not indicate there would be any issues for this week’s reservation openings.”
Summer is the busiest time of year for the Steamship Authority and opening day reservations have failed in the past. Last month, a consultant said the boat line was working on an outdated reservation system from 1997. The outsourced product is at the source of the authority’s tech problems and its sole owner is about to retire.
“The vendor for the reservations system, which is really the core of all your technology, is exiting the market, and so now there’s a new urgency to really replace that,” consultant Thomas Innis of Gibbous LLC told the Steamship’s governing board in December.
As of Tuesday, about 6,900 reservations in the Head Start program were booked, according to the Steamship Authority, slightly down from 2023. The ferry line did change its policy this year to limit non-transferable reservations, potentially accounting for the dip.
Mr. Davis said Head Start reservation will continue through Monday as previously planned and the delay will allow for an investigation and additional testing of the system.
“I want to be completely sure we have identified and addressed any remaining issues before we make the decision to open reservations,” Davis said. “These reservation opening days are the start of our customer’s summertime journey with us, and we always strive to make it as smooth a process as possible. We look forward to announcing new opening dates to our customers as soon as possible.”
