Hi Peter.
If this is your first visit to St Petersburg then personally I would suggest that you stick with the cruise ship excursions - then you won't need a visa - they cost over £100 these days and can be quite complicated to arrange. Also, if you don't speak any Russian then you may find it hard to make your own way around as not everyone can/wants to speak English. Hope that helps!

If you want something more personal then I can really recommend these people.

http://st-petersburg-tours.ru/

They are called TJ travel and they can organise everything for you at a fraction of the cost of the cruise line tours. Individual cars with private guides. No queueing for anywhere. I'm sure they could organise disabled transportation. They pick you up at the port, organise the visas in with the price. They can be paid in cash and they take no money up front. We paid them in dollars which gave us a 5% discount as well.

We used them in 2011 and they were fantastic.
reviews can be found here
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g298507-i707-k2950302-o20-TJ_Travel_tours_St_Petersburg-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html

I should also add that if they park the ship where P&O parked ours then you are about 10 miles outside St P in an industrial and tenement area where you would not want to walk (or motor) about alone. Not that you are allowed out alone in Russia, you have to have a guide with you.

You may have had to have a guide in the past but you can walk around in St.Petersburg (and many other cities in Russia ) on your own now. No need for a guide if you don't want one.

Hi So you are saying they could park the ship anywhere miles away. As I said there is only one tour for a person who cannot get out of the chair so me and my 6 ft big bald headed carer want to go out on our own Peter

And we are with RCB who I think get the nod over P&O as I seen that happen in the caribbean

I'm travelling to St.Petersburg in June but will be flying in to the City where I will be boarding a river cruise boat for a journey to Moscow so I'm sorry I can't be much help with your questions. I believe there is now a new cruise boat terminal about 3 miles from the City centre which takes the large boats. One of our members northantsj took a Baltic Cruise last year with a stop in St.Petersburg and she may be able to help you.

This may be of some help to you http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1433146

Yes, the big boats park well outside of the city. there were a few smaller boats tied up in the river in the centre of town but not cruise lines I recognised.

Legless, TJ tours will tailor your tour to whatever you want. If you want to shop they can do it, If you want the Catherine Palace/Hermitage/Church of the spilled blood etc then they can drop you on the steps outside and have tickets already organised which allows you to bypass all of the queues. kid you not. St the Catherine palace there was a crowd the size of Wembley stadium queueing to get in. A snake of people 8 across and several hundred long. Our guide took us straight to the front. Inside there was a queue for the turnstile/security check. Our guide went to the front, spoke with someone in uniform and they opened up another turnstile just for us which was closed again once we had gone through. It was unbelievable and if looks could have killed the bunch of Germans we went ahead of would have killed us stone dead, they must have been waiting for hours to get to the front of the queue. (last time the Germans were there they didn't bother with a queue)!

Same at the Hermitage. We pulled up right outside where one of her colleagues was waiting with tickets and we just walked up and straight in!

The cost for 2 days of tours which included organising the visas (done by email before we left the UK all we had to do was print them off and present them at the passport check), shopping, Entrance to the Catherine palace, Entrance to the Hermitage, Church of the spilled blood, Nevegski (sp) Prospect, A ticket for the Hydrofoil ride, a ticket for the Underground ride, markets and other sights as well was $300 each ($285 with the discount) and we only had to hand over the money on the 2nd day. Pick up and drop off was from the ship. A/C Mercedes car with Guide who spoke perfect English and knew everything there was to know plus a driver who also had English (and who enjoyed Top Gear)! In places he would drop us off so we could walk and then he would be at the other end to pick us up and take us to the next stop. We had my in laws with us who are both 80 so we asked for a gentle tour but they will do whatever you ask for. The cheapest ship tour IIRC was £200 and that was just for 1 day on a coach with 50 other people. They also accept plastic and Euros. Not sure if they take Sterling. We tipped the guide and driver in dollars (which pleased them) and at one place where we needed Roubles to pay for dinner (in a Russian Pie shop where no-one spoke English and we were the only tourists) the guide was happy to convert our dollars into local currency and the rate was what the banks were offering. The ship could not do Russian Currency but we had a few roubles that we got from Tescos which we also handed over to the guide and driver at the end of the 2nd day.

Can anyone tell me what the toilet situation is like when u are ashore? There must be public one's but are they for disabled people in wheelchair's and whats situation like if u go in hotels or Bar's? Peter

We only used one 'Public' toilet outside the catharine palace and it was pretty grim. However the guide made regular rest stops at shops where they recommended you used the toilets as they knew they were clean. The shops expected the tours to stop there was no obligation to buy and they also gave complimentary vodka! At 9.30 in the morning!!

I'm sorry i can't help regarding disabled toilets as they were not really on our radar.

Hi Legless, did you do the trip in the end?