Cuba

But they're not sure how far to go in lifting sanctions, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Monday as full diplomatic relations between the two countries were formally restored.

"Relations between Cuba and the U.S. I think are long overdue. There's no threat there," said Alex Bega, 30, of Los Angeles. "I think the sanctions we have on them are pretty much obsolete."

President Raul Castro was attending the gathering and was expected to make his first public comments since the United States and Cuba announced they will re-establish diplomatic relations on Monday and reopen embassies in each other's respective capitals.

State-run website Cubadebate reported that the National Assembly was considering a final budget report for 2014 and the status of Cuba's economic plan over the first half of this year.

In a statement published on the state-run website Cubadebate, the Transportation Ministry said the number of cruise ship port calls rose from 24 in 2012 to 139 in 2014, while visits by cruise passengers saw a similar jump from 6,770 to 37,519 during the same period.

Already this year there have been 174 port calls and 62,183 passenger visits through May, according to the ministry's statistics.

Starting in May, Carnival Corp. plans to offer trips from Miami to the Caribbean island nation, the company announced Tuesday. Carnival says it would become the first American cruise company to visit Cuba since the 1960 trade embargo. 

The trips will be through its new brand, fathom, which focuses on trips where passengers sail to a destination in order to volunteer there.

President Barack Obama has reiterated his call for Congress to lift the embargo on Cuba which he said has failed to bring political change in the country. However, he faces stiff resistance from Republicans, as well as some Democrats, who say he is prematurely rewarding a government that engages in serious human rights abuses.

 And Obama announced Wednesday that the U.S. and Cuba will reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, heralding a "new chapter" in relations after a half-century of hostility.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce the agreement Wednesday at the White House. The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the embassies in Washington and Havana would open July 20.

The U.S. and Cuba have been negotiating the re-establishment of embassies following a surprise December announcement that secret talks had led to an agreement to restart diplomatic relations.

The announcement marks a major step in ending hostilities between the longtime foes.

The U.S. and Cuba have been negotiating the reestablishment of embassies following the Dec. 17 announcement that they would move to restore ties.

For Obama, ending Washington's half-century freeze with Cuba is seen as a major element of his foreign policy legacy. He has long touted the value of engagement and argued that the U.S. embargo on the communist island just 90 miles south of Florida was ineffective.

Cuba has seen such a surge in visitors that the fragile budgets of many tourism-dependent islands will be hit hard if they don't take action, Frank Comito, CEO of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association, said Wednesday.

"If we continue to operate business as usual, and we all draw from the same pie and Cuba is in the equation ... there will be serious economic and employment consequences," he said in a phone interview.