Continued technical problems with the Steamship Authority’s website have forced the ferry line to postpone the start of its summer vehicle reservations.

The ferry line announced the indefinite delay on Friday, Jan. 19. saying it had technical challenges Jan. 16 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 general reservation opening dates would not be announced until an internal review was completed, potentially putting vacationers’ summer plans in limbo. As of Thursday, the Steamship Authority was still working out the problems and did not have a new opening date. 

Several Islanders struggled to make it through the reservation system for preferred and excursion customers, and officials said there were multiple points of failure. The Nantucket Current also reported that Nantucketers experienced 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 is something like Black Friday. Thousands of people rush to the website in search of prized vehicle reservations for the height of summer.

In recent years, that blitz has overloaded the reservation system and website, causing slowdowns and crashes, and the authority’s information technology systems have been a running concern for the Steamship’s board of governors. 

Last month, a consultant said the boat line was working on an outdated reservation system from 1997.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.

James Malkin, the Vineyard’s representative on the Steamship governing board has been calling for the ferry line to upgrade its IT infrastructure. He said this week he is concerned that these issues continue to recur almost annually. 

“I am very unhappy that it seems every year we run into problems that we’ve experienced in the past and haven’t resolved satisfactorily,” he said this week.  “Particularly because this is a known event, with known and increasing volume that are going to happen on a certain date.”

The authority was expected to roll out a new website after general reservations opened, but Mr. Malkin also questioned if that should happen given the underlying issues. 

“The website is based on an entire IT infrastructure that is apparently as problematic as some of us thought,” he said. 

The hiccup could send people looking for a vacation destination elsewhere, but there was no evidence that was happening yet, said Annabelle Hunton, the owner of the Nobnocket Boutique Inn in Vineyard Haven and the president of the Martha’s Vineyard Lodging Association. 

“Most properties have said they have not had push back from bookings yet,” she said. “Having said that, many people only book their hotel after securing a ferry reservation if they want to bring the car, therefore any noticeable difference in summer booking will be seen during the first week of February.” 

Head Start reservation closed Monday and 24,440 reservations were made across both the Vineyard and Nantucket, a 4.5 per cent increase over 2023.

Mr. Davis said the delaying of general reservations 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,” he 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.”