MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass. — People wanting to make summer plans to Martha’s Vineyard were met with frustration Tuesday morning when online reservations, which were set to open at 5 a.m., were unable to be made due to site problems that left people waiting for hours.
Eventually, after more than 7 hours, some people were able to make their reservations while others were left trying all day.
“I am frustrated,” said Christine Kazlauskas of Bridgewater. “I’m frustrated like every other person.”
Jonas and Christine Kazlauskas were up since 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, prepared to make their summer ferry reservations to Martha’s Vineyard. Instead, they were met with a travel advisory on the Steamship Authority’s home page stating they were experiencing, “unexpected issues.”
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“I’m chained to the computer, basically,” Jonas said.
Around 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, Steamship Authority tweeted the following:
“Literally, it takes all day to get these reservations done,” Christine said.
Jonas and Christine were anxiously ready to try again around noon after the Steamship Authority tweeted out that the reservations site would be ready near midday.
“We spent thousands of dollars on a certain week in the summertime and now it’s our chore to get our cars over there,” Jonas said. “So this is where we’re stuck right now.”
But, shortly after noon, Steamship Authority tweeted that site issues were continuing.
Another viewer told a Boston 25 News reporter that he was finally able to make a reservation for August around 12:45 p.m. after getting kicked off seven times. For Jonas and Christine, it took them until 2:30 p.m. for their reservations to be finalized.
A spokesman for the Steamship Authority told Boston 25 News around noon that some people were able to get on and, for others, it took more tries. That spokesman added that they apologized for the problems.
But to add to all of the frustrations of the day, ferry rates went up this season.