Imagine being the cruise director who has to rewrite the same itinerary twice in one sailing. That's the situation aboard Virgin Voyages' Scarlet Lady, currently chartered by Atlantis Events for an LGBTQ+ voyage through the Eastern Mediterranean, after Egyptian authorities denied the ship entry for its planned call at Alexandria on Wednesday, July 8.

AIS tracking data shows the ship approaching the Egyptian port in the early hours of Wednesday, then turning around. "We're incredibly disappointed to share that the Scarlet Lady has just been denied entry into Egyptian waters," organizers told guests onboard, adding that Atlantis was working with Virgin Voyages to secure an alternative port.

Here's the part that stings: Alexandria was already the backup plan. The ten-night cruise, which departed Piraeus on July 5, was originally supposed to visit Istanbul and Kusadasi — until Turkish authorities denied the ship access before it even left the dock, according to a report by CNN. Atlantis rebuilt the route around Souda Bay in Crete and Alexandria, and now half of that patch has fallen through too.

The rest of the itinerary — Mykonos, Santorini, Dubrovnik, and Zadar — is still intact, and the sailing wraps up in Trieste on July 15 as scheduled. From there, Scarlet Lady heads straight into a second Atlantis charter, a nine-night run from Trieste to Barcelona with stops across Italy, Spain, France, and Croatia. No reported drama on that route so far, and everyone involved would presumably like to keep it that way.

Credit where due: a ship full of guests, a sea day nobody asked for, and a crew rebuilding an itinerary in real time — that's a masterclass in cruise flexibility. We talk a lot on the show about packing your patience. This sailing packed a warehouse of it.