My TP is roughly around 1.4m, helper included. If not included, the strongest ship has 1.25m power. As wikia suggested, your first team must be as strong as possible, especially on swan ship stage (17 onward) since if they got KOed, it will affect ship power.
Dogwood is surprisingly helpful in whaleship as she gives 100% solar gauge from start. The ship cannon also increase pest's stun gauge a lot, so you can go with burst attack more quickly. If you're lucky, you can deal 1.5m+ with burst attack. (or more if you have nuke girls attack a crystal)
Well I think it's hard on DMM since we don't have loads of rainbows like Nutaku. It should be much easier there if the harder stage were to implemented... as long as they release bloom more quickly.