Grenada cruise port
St George's sits inside a drowned volcanic crater, which is what makes the harbour that shape. It is the Spice Isle, and grew a serious share of the world's nutmeg until Hurricane Ivan flattened the trees in 2004; nutmeg is still on the flag.
Worth knowing. In the bay north of town there is a sculpture park on the sea floor, figures standing in a ring underwater. It was the first of its kind anywhere and it was made after the hurricane.
What to do in Grenada for free
The terminal opens straight into town. The Carenage curves round the inner harbour with the fishing boats along it, and the market at the end of it sells nutmeg and cocoa rather than souvenirs. Fort George is a short steep climb above the lot and the view pays for the ten minutes.
What costs money
The ship's own excursions usually cost more than booking the same trip yourself. Two things come with the price. The ship waits for its own excursions and does not wait for you. And if the port is missed, P&O refunds its own without you asking. A trip you booked yourself is a claim on your travel insurance, so check what your policy covers. The ship sells its own trips to all of these, and the desk is open on board if you would rather do it that way.
Grand Anse. Two kilometres of white sand about ten minutes away, and the water taxi from the Carenage is the good way to arrive. It is a public beach with no resort sitting on it.
Seeing the sculptures. A glass-bottomed boat if you would rather stay dry, or a snorkel if you would not. It is a short run up the coast either way and the figures stand in about five metres of water.
Which ship calls at Grenada, and when
Every call here between 15 August and 28 November 2026, with the hours ashore P&O published. These times are a guide, not a promise: the captain gives the real ones the day before.
| Ship | Sails | Day | Ashore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arvia | 6 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 7 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 14 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 20 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 21 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 28 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 4 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 5 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 12 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 18 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 19 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 26 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 1 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 2 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 11 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 4 January 2027, 35 nights | Day 18 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 9 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 4 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 15 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 16 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 23 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 29 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 30 January 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 6 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 12 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 13 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 20 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 26 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 13 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 27 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 6 March 2027, 22 nights | Day 5 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 5 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 6 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 8 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 12 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 13 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 13 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 13 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 15 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 10 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 19 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 20 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 20 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 22 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 26 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 27 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 27 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 29 November 2027, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 4 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 10 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 13 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 11 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 13 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 10 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 18 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 24 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 25 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 27 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 31 December 2027, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 1 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 1 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 3 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 7 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 8 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 8 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 10 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 14 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 15 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 15 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 17 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 21 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 22 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 22 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 24 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 29 January 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 4 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 13 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 5 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 7 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 10 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 12 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 5 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 18 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 19 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 21 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 26 February 2028, 14 nights | Day 4 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 3 March 2028, 14 nights | Day 13 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 4 March 2028, 14 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 6 March 2028, 26 nights | Day 10 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 11 March 2028, 21 nights | Day 5 | 07:00 to 18:00 |
How long you get ashore in Grenada
The published times give you between about 10 and 11 hours alongside, depending on the sailing. Take off the time it takes a few thousand people to get off, and the time you need to be back on board before the ship leaves, and that is your day. P&O give the real hours the day before, and the all-aboard time is earlier than the departure time.
The other stops on these cruises
Every one of these is on at least one of the sailings that calls at Grenada.
- AntiguaNelson's Dockyard at English Harbour is a working Georgian naval yard that never fell down: Horatio Nelson was based here from 1784, hated it, and called it a vile hole.
- BasseterreSt Kitts was England's first colony in the Caribbean, in 1624, and the French took the other end of the island the same decade.
- BridgetownEnglish from 1627 and never changed hands, which is why the island kept its parliament, its cricket and its place names.
- CastriesBritain and France exchanged this island fourteen times, which is why the towns are French and the law is English.
- DominicaThe Nature Island, and the mountains are the reason: rainforest over most of it, and Morne Trois Pitons inland, a World Heritage site with the second largest hot lake in the world steaming in the middle of it.
- Fort de FranceIn May 1902 Mount Pelee destroyed Saint-Pierre, then the island's main city, killing about thirty thousand people in minutes; a prisoner in a thick-walled cell was among the very few to live.
- Gran CanariaColumbus put in at Las Palmas in 1492 to mend a rudder on his way west, and the house he is said to have stayed in is now a museum about him.
- La CorunaThe Spanish Armada sailed from this harbour in 1588, and it is still guarded by the Tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse from about the year 100 which has never stopped working: the oldest one on earth still doing its job.
- St MaartenThe island has been split between the Dutch and the French since the Treaty of Concordia in 1648, which makes it the smallest piece of land in the world shared by two nations, and there is no border to speak of.
- TenerifeMount Teide stands 3,715 metres over the island, the highest point in Spain and, measured from its base on the sea floor, the third largest volcano on earth.
- TortolaRoad Town has been the seat of these islands since the British took them from the Dutch in 1672.
Money and language in Grenada
East Caribbean dollar (XCD, $). Fixed at 2.70 to the US dollar, and US dollars are accepted. Onboard is always charged in sterling, so this only matters ashore.
English.
Free, and it works with no internet. Give it the dates you sail and it works out your own stops and saves the street map for each one. It shows you round the ship too.
All the ports written up so far, the things to do before you sail, or the ship pages for Iona and Arvia.