A U.S. cruise ship docked in Havana on Monday for the first time since relations with Cuba were re-established.
The ship, operated by a Carnival subsidiary, arrived at the Cuban capital a little before 11 a.m. local time, CNN reported. The ship left Miami on Sunday on a seven-day cruise.
The vessel was allowed to set sail after Havana in April backed off from an embargo preventing Cuban-born Americans from returning to the island by sea. Those travelers had been previously allowed to visit the island only by air.
President Barack Obama has led a policy of rapprochement with Cuba’s communist government, re-establishing diplomatic relations and visiting the island in March.
While the groundwork has been set for commercial flights — and now cruises — between the United States and the island, communist authorities have made clear that not much else will change in the short term.
Washington’s commercial embargo on Cuba remains in place. It can only be lifted by an act of Congress, an unlikely proposition while Republicans control the legislative body.