``It makes such a difference.''

Buckingham Palace had threatened to cancel the pre-arranged photo opportunity on the slopes after crews from CBC, Global TV and VTV, a Vancouver station, staked out the base of a chair lift Wednesday morning.

They began recording images of the royals arriving for a day of skiing.

The incident was labelled as a major breach of media protocol. The vast majority of the 100 or so media representatives in Whistler have kept their distance.

After a stern warning that one more intrusion could cause the photo opportunity to be cancelled and possibly jeopardize any future royal holidays here, all media outlets respected the request.

A palace official said yesterday he may have overreacted to the incident involving the television crews.

By all accounts, the princes have largely had the privacy they requested.

The media has been under scrutiny since the death of the young princes' much-photographed mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, last August in a Paris car crash.

Yesterday, camera operators laden with heavy gear lined up behind a rope at the top of Whistler Mountain, drawing a crowd of curious skiers.

Within minutes, the three princes appeared on a chair lift.

They then eased down a beginner slope to the waiting crowd.

``Welcome to Canada,'' yelled one female skier on the lift. Charles and his sons smiled and waved.

William and Harry looked relaxed and seemed amused by all the attention.

Charles was asked if Harry was the best skier of the group.

William laughed and said: ``I don't know about that.''

The trio then skied off down the hill.

The three princes have been having a good time. They seem to have blended in with thousands of other holiday skiers, who have had the thrill of swooshing down slopes next to royalty. Their visit has been low-key. None of the 200 runs was closed to the public, so it was prime royal-watching time for the other skiers.

Aside from the occasional crowd that forms whenever the father and sons walk through the village, the public has kept its distance. Others taking souvenir snapshots have been asked to stop and, for the most part, they have.

``I'd have to say I'm pretty starstruck,'' said Kaitlyn Riordan, 15, of Montreal.

``Yesterday we saw them in full action going down the hill, and they looked like they were having a great time,'' Riordan said.

``They had a couple of guides with them and they were doing some pretty cool stuff. They're very good, and Harry was going pretty quickly. I was impressed with that.''

Riordan, like the hordes of other vacationing skiers, thought it was a treat to share the hill with the princes. ``I'm glad they feel comfortable coming to Canada.''

The princes will have two more days at Whistler before they head to Vancouver and board separate planes home.