Prince Harry tore up the royal tour rule book on his recent visit to the Caribbean, according to veteran royal photographer Arthur Edwards. Edwards should know -- he has covered 200 royal tours, more than anyone.

And it was an extraordinary royal tour. The press coverage surpassed even the media's expectations. Harry was himself and it came across on camera. People around the world enjoyed getting to know Prince William's younger brother.

A royal tour is a series of engagements. Each event is planned months in advance and the press is briefed on what to expect. But with Harry you never quite know what will happen. You know he will arrive and leave, but there is no way to predict what might happen in between.

Watch Prince Harry talk about "emotional trip"

On March 6, I was in Kingston, Jamaica. The entire royal press pack had agreed that the main event of the day would be Harry meeting sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world.

The plan was for Bolt to give Harry some tips on how to come out of the starting blocks. We wanted to know if they would go on and race each other. The organizers said they didn't know.

When Harry arrived, he immediately hit it off with Bolt. They were laughing and goading each other which gave us some great images.

Watch Harry take on world's fastest man

But before we knew it, Harry had used a distraction technique to get a head start against Bolt and he raced off to the finish line. The image became front page news in the UK and in other parts of the world.

But while Harry is happy enough performing in front of the mainstream media, it's a relationship of tolerance.

A senior royal source told me he does have a problem with paparazzi photographers who have invaded his life in the past -- and tormented his mother, Diana.

After racing Bolt, Harry set off to meet Portia Simpson-Miller, the staunchly-republican prime minister of Jamaica. We expected a handshake, we got warm embrace.

Then, at an inner city school we were treated to a spectacular display of Harry's dancing skills to a track by Bob Marley, who he later impersonated at a state dinner. Harry even made it on to the fashion pages that day with his eye catching blue suede shoes.

Harry turns every engagement into an event, and that's what makes him unique as a royal.

The royal source told me Harry didn't have a strategy for this tour. "He just went for it."

But don't assume he's just having fun. This is someone who puts duty first. It's a lesson he took from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, I am told. It was out of duty that he agreed to go on the trip on her behalf.

While he enjoyed the tour, for him it is always about supporting the queen and only she would be the judge of whether it was a success.

So what did she make of his time in the Caribbean?

CNN has learned that everyone, including the queen and Harry's father, Prince Charles, "was very pleased and proud" of his performance.

The palace source was speaking to CNN for a documentary airing this weekend: "The Royals: Harry, The Soldier Prince." It's the first in a four-part CNN series to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

The source says the Caribbean tour was a milestone in Harry's life. It was the first time people got to see him as a whole rather than in a series of snapshots.

The public believe Harry is a special and gifted young man, the source said. He is particularly good at reading situations, and people saw that on display over a period of time.

Harry was seen as possessing a confidence and emotional intelligence that allowed him to move naturally from goofing with Bolt, to connecting with a young child to being a statesman. Harry, I am told however, would never see himself as a statesmen.

So has Prince Harry finally come of age? Is the man who once wore a Nazi outfit to a party and got into all other sorts of trouble now consigned to the past?

The royal source puts it like this: "The impulsiveness of Harry's youth has turned into the fun you saw on the Usain Bolt track in Jamaica. He has matured."