Karen, we were in St Petersburg in May on a Princess cruise. We booked a private tour group for ourselves and it was fantastic. There were 10 in our travel group; we went with Alla Tour and I can't recommend it highly enough. There was absolutely no question of not getting back to the ship on time. There is also NO problem getting off the ship despite not being on a ship's excursion.

We loved being in a small group, and although we had only one day in port, we felt that we saw the highlights in a very, very full day. Take a look at the Alla Tour website to see the variety of tours they will arrange.