Computer malfunction delaying reservations for San Juan ferries

Spring vehicle reservations for San Juan ferries and the Port Townsend-Coupeville route are postponed because the computer system is duplicating reservations.

“We normally do our initial release of every sailing scheduled for the season two months in advance of the start of the sailing season,” said Washington State Ferry brand and Digital Content Manager Justin Fujioka. “But due to an IT issue that’s kind of ongoing with the last couple of releases, it’s mainly affecting people who make bulk reservations. These are the business travelers and people who take delivery practically daily, and they want to make several reservations throughout the season.

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“We want to fix that. Make sure it’s ok before we do this next release,” Fujioka continued. “So until that happens, we’re going to hold off on releasing the next sailing season schedule for both of those routes.”

Fujioka stated they will be able to make those reservations once the issue is resolved.

“And we will get a heads up notice prior to when we release it. Hopefully it won’t take too long,” Fujioka said. “But we will be releasing reservations in advance for sailings that begin on March 26, all the way through June.”

In the meantime, drivers can still make reservations all the way through March 25 on Washington State Ferry’s current sailings for the winter schedule.

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“We hope that it doesn’t take until, like March 20 when we release it,” Fujioka said. “But hopefully it’ll be in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to give an announcement saying ‘hey, we’re ready to go.’ And hopefully give a week’s notice so that people have a heads up to make the reservation because it’s kind of like concert tickets when it goes off at 7 a.m.”

Fujioka says the glitch duplicated reservations, and the WSF wants to make sure that that does not happen when they release their next set of reservation dates.

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