Egypt Denies Scarlet Lady Entry to Alexandria on LGBTQ+ Charter
Guests had Alexandria excursions refunded to onboard accounts, while the revised schedule added Chania on July 10 and replaced Heraklion with a sea day.
Egyptian authorities denied Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady entry to Alexandria this week, forcing Atlantis Events to remove another port from its 10-night LGBTQ+ charter in the Eastern Mediterranean. The decision came days after Turkish authorities barred the same sailing from Kusadasi and Istanbul, leaving the July 5 Piraeus-to-Trieste voyage to be reworked twice before its scheduled July 15 conclusion.
The Alexandria call was itself a replacement for the canceled Turkey calls. “We were given full approval to arrive in Egypt,” said Rich Campbell, president and CEO of Atlantis Events. Four hours before the ship was to take on the pilot and customs officers, he said, Atlantis and Virgin Voyages were told Scarlet Lady would not be allowed into the harbor. “No explanation was given for this decision and we are very disappointed.”
AIS tracking showed Scarlet Lady turning away after approaching Alexandria. In a letter to guests, Campbell said Atlantis had “successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year without issue” and that both Atlantis and Virgin Voyages had worked to preserve the call. Egyptian port authorities have given no public reason.
Operational changes after the Alexandria cancellation
All shore excursions booked for Alexandria were automatically canceled and refunded to guests’ onboard accounts. Passport collection that had been planned during the Egypt call was also postponed because the ship would no longer enter the country.
The revised plan moved the ship to Chania, Crete, on July 10 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while a Heraklion call scheduled for the following day was replaced with a sea day. Kotor, Montenegro, remained on the itinerary as a tender port, followed by scheduled calls at Dubrovnik and Zadar in Croatia.
Turkey decision preceded Egypt denial
The charter had originally been scheduled to call at Kusadasi on July 7 before continuing to Istanbul. Authorities in Turkey’s Aydin Province, where Kusadasi is located, said the visit involved groups whose conduct did not align with local “moral values” and said there was “absolutely no possibility” of the call going ahead.
Campbell called Turkey’s decision “pretty stunning” and said Atlantis had operated 13 previous charters to Istanbul and Kusadasi over roughly 25 years without incident. He also said Atlantis has brought charters to Egypt at least five times, including 2,500 guests to Alexandria last year and 1,200 the year before.
Inside the Atlantis charter
Scarlet Lady, Virgin Voyages’ inaugural ship, was carrying about 1,900 guests on the Atlantis charter, including roughly 1,100 from the United States and others from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and additional markets.
Atlantis Events was founded by Campbell in 1991 for resort vacations and began chartering cruise ships in 1998. Campbell said Turkey’s move was the first time in the company’s history that it had been told it could not berth “because of who we are.”
Scarlet Lady’s next Atlantis Events voyage remains scheduled after the current charter, with a nine-night sailing from Italy to Barcelona. Its planned port lineup includes Split, Valletta, Palermo, Sorrento, Civitavecchia, Villefranche and Marseille.
