The Steamship Authority Friday announced a new opening date for general vehicle reservations after the initial start time was delayed due to technical woes.
The general public will be able to book summer vehicle reservations to the Vineyard on Feb. 14, starting at 8 a.m. – two weeks after the reservations were previously scheduled to open.
Summer reservations on the Steamship Authority are akin to Black Friday, with thousands of people queuing virtually in hopes of getting prized weekend and holiday spots on the boats. The reservation system has had problems in the past and when early reservations for Islanders opening up earlier this year, the boatline said it again experienced technical issues.
An investigation into the problems was traced to an underperforming cloud-based web server, as well as communication failures of on-premise web servers, the Steamship Authority said in a statement.
Changes were made to the servers and the system has been stable following several days of testing.
“Following more than two weeks of extensive troubleshooting by our IT team and external vendors, we feel confident our systems are prepared to provide a smooth experience for our customers during the reservation opening days,” said Robert Davis, the Steamship Authority general manager. “I know this delay has been an inconvenience for our customers, and I thank them for their patience during this process.”
Steamship Authority officials will continue to monitor and manage the number of people allowed onto the website to ensure the system can operate properly when reservations open. The Steamship authority will employ a virtual waiting room on opening day, allowing customers to see their place in line and the approximate wait time until they can make a reservation.
The Vineyard will be able to see how the process plays out when Nantucket reservations open first on Feb. 8.
Phone and in-person reservations will open on Feb. 20.
