Call it the perfect storm at the Steinbach Aquatic Centre.

Wednesday was opening day for online fall swimming lesson registration. But Aquatic Centre Manager Jane Hansen says a series of unfortunate events resulted in a very frustrating day for parents and staff.

Hansen says the pool started using a new registration software. Rather than transfer old data into the new system, parents needed to create a new account in the software. This, coupled with the fact that many homes were still experiencing a power outage when registration opened at 8 am and the decision by the software company to do an update just before, made for a rough start.

"I guess we were just unlucky enough to have it all happen on our registration day," says Hansen.

More than 900 kids were registered on opening day, which is ahead of last year's opening day pace. Hansen admits there were some frustrated parents but she says for the most part people were very understanding.

"They kind of know what software is like and understand that there are always going to be little things that need to be fixed and updated and bugs that need to be fixed," she says.

One such bug had to do with the start times for lessons. The software is from a worldwide company, with offices in Ottawa. As a result, times were based on Eastern Standard Time. That meant, some parents registered their child for the desired start time, only to discover the receipt showed the lesson starting at a different time. Hansen says whatever time was clicked on the website, is the time the child is signed up for. However, she asks parents to double check the barcode on their receipt and make sure it matches the time in the pool's fall registration booklet.

In an effort to help those without Internet access, the pool had eight computers set up Wednesday where parents could come down and set up their accounts with help from staff.

Meanwhile, Steinbach residents get a $35 discount for every class they register for. Hansen says, unfortunately, the new software was not able to credit that discount on Wednesday. She notes they are now checking to make sure each account that deserves a $35 discount receives that credit.

"I would really like to thank everyone for being patient with us and taking the time to come in if they had to, we really appreciate all of that," says Hansen. "We are going to get the bugs worked out of our system and we will move forward with it and hopefully next time it's going to be a lot better than this."

And in fact she says next time will go much smoother. Now that all of these accounts have been set up, future registrations can be done in person or by telephone.