suepergerl

I was on a Baltic cruise and had a private tour excursion booked ahead of time in St. Petersburg. When the ship docked the ship let all their excursions disembark first and any private excursions were secondary and held back. We and a few others were 1/2 hr. late for our private tour (they waited for us) even though the ship knew ahead of time that we had an appointed time for our private tour. Is this common and is this contrived?

Yep, we were allowed off ship in St. Petersburg for our private excursion when I went there in 2016 and we had a visa.