Turkey Forces Virgin Voyages LGBTQ+ Charter to Reroute

Updated July 9, 2026

Virgin Voyages' Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters, forcing a second rerouting of an Atlantis Events LGBTQ+ charter that had already been blocked from calling in Turkey. The adults-only ship, carrying about 2,000 guests, will no longer call in Alexandria, a replacement port added after Turkish authorities barred scheduled visits to Kusadasi and Istanbul on the 10-day July 5 sailing from Athens.

Passengers woke Thursday to a cabin-door letter saying Atlantis and Virgin Voyages were urgently looking for alternative ports. The ship has since been rerouted again, with Chania, Crete, scheduled for Friday and Montenegro for Sunday. Egypt has given no official reason for the refusal.

Rich Campbell, president and chief executive of Atlantis Events, told passengers in the letter: “Early this morning, we were informed that Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters, and, as a result, will no longer be able to call in Alexandria today.”

“I know how much this visit meant to so many of you. We successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year without issue. So we were surprised by this unfortunate decision,” Campbell wrote. The note concluded: “Please know that both the Atlantis and Virgin Voyages teams worked tirelessly to make this call in Alexandria a possibility. This news came as a surprise to all of us, and we're just as disappointed as you are.”

Second rerouting after Turkey denial

The Alexandria visit had been arranged after Turkey blocked the Scarlet Lady from calling at Kusadasi and Istanbul. The July 5 departure from Athens had originally been scheduled to reach Kusadasi on July 7 before continuing to Istanbul.

Aydin province officials, whose jurisdiction includes Kusadasi, said the charter involved groups whose conduct was incompatible with local “moral values” and had caused public concern. The Turkish statement said: “There is absolutely no possibility of the group in question visiting our province for an event of this nature.”

Atlantis told guests that Turkish authorities had canceled the calls. Campbell said about 1,100 of the 1,900 expected guests were from the United States, with others from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and additional countries.

“It's pretty stunning, to be honest,” Campbell said. “The reasoning behind it is that it's a gay group.” He said Atlantis had brought gay cruise charters to Istanbul and Kusadasi 13 times in the past 25 years, and that extensive calls involving the U.S. Embassy in Turkey had not persuaded authorities to reverse the decision. Atlantis was founded in 1991 and began chartering cruise ships for LGBTQ+ vacations in 1998.

Campbell rejected any suggestion that the sailing was political. “We are not there for anything except to spend money, have a good time, take tours and be incredibly respectful to every culture we visit,” he said. He also said an “Atlantis brochure” cited by Istanbul officials after a police raid at a bar was not produced by or affiliated with Atlantis.

Kusadasi has turned away a gay cruise before

Kusadasi is the main cruise gateway to Ephesus. Ege Port Kusadasi handled 995,303 cruise passengers and 617 cruise calls in 2025. In 2000, then-Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu apologized after police blocked more than 800 gay tourists on a cruise liner from visiting Kusadasi and Ephesus, saying, “We cannot discriminate according to people's sexual preference.”

Same-sex relations are not criminalized in Turkey, but LGBTQ+ public events have faced repeated restrictions. Istanbul Pride, which previously drew thousands of marchers, has been banned every year since 2015, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regularly used hostile language toward LGBTQ+ people.

The Turkish government had not provided a separate comment beyond the provincial statements. Patti LuPone, the Tony Award-winning performer scheduled to appear on the ship, said on Instagram that she was still sailing after Turkey's decision: “I am furious, but I am sailing, as the ship will make other ports of call. I am ready to perform for all the wonderful men on this Atlantis cruise, who deserve so much better than this.”