Several days ago, I covered how a Virgin Voyages cruise organized by Atlantis Events was supposed to make a couple of stops in Turkey, only for government officials to block this on the grounds of “moral standards.” So the organizers replaced the Turkey stops with a stop in Egypt. Want to guess how that ended? Well, arguably even worse than the Turkey stop… and I can’t say I’m surprised.
Atlantis Events CEO Rich Campbell has called this “really unheard of” and “strange and sad,” noting that approval to dock was pulled around 3:30AM. Ship tracking shows the ship approaching Alexandria, only to turn around in the early morning hours, as organizers scramble to find alternatives.
Egypt hasn’t yet formally commented on why permission was yanked at the last minute, but I think it’s not too hard to figure out what’s going on. As a reminder, Turkey blocked this cruise ship on grounds of “family values,” claiming that the ship was chartered by groups “known for behaviors incompatible with the fabric of our society and our moral values.”
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
