Island Fever: Martha’s Vineyard Ferry Flooded With 20,000 Vehicle Reservations

It looks like the snowfall this week had people thinking about sunnier days on the SouthCoast as the Steamship Authority was flooded with reservations on its opening day Wednesday.

If you plan on bringing your vehicle to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket this year and did not make a reservation yesterday, you’re behind the ball.

The ferry service announced it processed over 20,000 automobile reservations for the Woods Hole/Martha’s Vineyard ferry route and had processed 23.442 transactions, representing more than $6.3 million in revenue after opening online reservations at 8 a.m.

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The incident sounds reminiscent of last year’s fiasco when the authority’s website crashed after thousands rushed to the site to book trips for the 2023 season.

“More than 900 customers made reservations in the first 20 minutes after summer bookings opened at 5 a.m.,” the Steamship Authority said last year.

There don’t seem to be any reports of a crashed site, but wait times were a long, drawn-out process.

The Steamship Authority saw peak activity at around 8:40 a.m., when an average of more than 21,000 active sessions were in the virtual waiting room.

By 10:15 a.m., the average wait time was 2 hours and 15 minutes.

“Customers will be able to make summer reservations for ferry trips to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket either by phone or in person at terminals starting at 8 a.m., Tuesday, February 20,” the authority told WCVB.

It seems people are ready to say goodbye to the winter season and sail away to island time.

It just required a little patience to secure their ferry spot.