Summer ferry reservations for vehicles opening for Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, after tech glitches

The Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority has scheduled new online opening dates and times for its summer vehicle reservations.

The general public may start booking summer reservations on the Nantucket route at 8 a.m. Thursday, February 8, 2024.

Booking for summer reservations on the Martha’s Vineyard route will open at 8 a.m. Wednesday, February 14, 2024.

Both openings will cover travel from May 15, 2024, through October 20, 2024, for the respective island. The opening times on these days have been changed to 8 a.m. to provide enhanced support services to customers.

The new opening times and dates were scheduled following an investigation into technical challenges experienced on January 18, 2024, during the Head Start summer reservation openings for residents of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The review was conducted by the Authority’s IT team, along with the assistance of multiple external vendors.

The errors that occurred during the Head Start openings were traced to an underperformance of a cloud-based web server, as well as unexpected communication failures of on-premises web servers. Following configuration changes to these servers and other server modifications, the system performance was shown to be 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 General Manager Robert B. Davis. “I know this delay has been an inconvenience for our customers, and I thank them for their patience during this process.”

The Authority will continue to closely monitor and actively manage the number of users allowed on the website to ensure the system is operating at an optimal level. This will be done through the use of a virtual waiting room on both opening days that allows customers to see their “place” in line and the approximate wait time until they can make a transaction, eliminating the need for customers to continually refresh their browser. 

Although summer automobile reservations will not be able to be made by phone during the online opening periods, the Authority’s Reservation Office will be available from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily should a customer need assistance with their login password or PIN.

Following the online openings, customers will be able to make summer reservations via the phone and in person at terminals starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, February 20, 2024.

Since 1960, the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority has served as the transportation lifeline to the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard year round. The Steamship Authority is the largest ferry service to the islands and offers the most frequent daily departures for passengers, automobiles, groups and trucks. In 2023, more than 2.9 million passengers and more than 690,000 vehicles of all sizes were transported to and from the islands. Our U.S. Coast Guard-certified crews are committed to the highest level of safety at sea while our vessels offer comfort and convenience with spacious seating, free Wi-Fi and TV on board.