Whale watching Azores or Madeira - book in advance?

[sequincruiser]

Hi. We are cruising in just under a month with Celebrity and wanted to do a whale/dolphin tour in Ponta Delgada. The ship doesn't dock until 2pm and most of the tours I have researched privately seem to have set time of departure in either the am and generally at 2pm which is obviously going to be too early for us allowing time to get off the ship.

 

So we decided to ditch Ponta Delgada and try for Funchal instead as that is an early dock. My question now is - does anyone have any experience of these trips in Madeira and did you book in advance online or just rock up at the harbour and join the next excursion? We don't want to miss out if it's likely to be popular or stand in line too long to sign up. I guess I am leaning towards booking before we go but am a little nervous of that ie paying up front.

 

Any tips here? Any advice on operators? I do know of course that the ship also carries these trips but they are double the price.