The Carnival Victory and the Caribbean Princess are both under two-week, dockside charter in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to house staff and international press during the Fifth Summit of the Americas.
President Barack Obama is among the leaders of the 34 member countries of the Organization of America States attending the meeting, which focuses on economical, social and political development of North, Central and South America. The event is expected to attract more than 5,000 visitors to Trinidad.
The ships were chartered by the Tourism Development Company of Trinidad & Tobago in order to supplement the 1,700 hotel rooms in Port-of-Spain, according to Landry & Kling, a Miami-based specialist in meetings at sea.
Landry & Kling, which arranged the charters, said that 3,000 additional rooms were made available on the 2,758 passenger Carnival Victory and the 3,100-passenger Caribbean Princess.
The summit takes place from April 17 to 19, but the ships also will be used for pre-summit and parallel events, including meetings and sessions.
Then the ships will embark on four-day, post-summit cruises with all revenue going to the government of Trinidad & Tobago to defray the cost of the charters.