Finished my duke of edinburgh gold expedition a few weeks ago, it is a good thing to have but not as much of a "wow factor" that it used to be because more and more students are doing it (especially in the private school system, predictably).
Tbh I didn't have to work very hard for it, doing the IB meant I had to do 150hours of CAS anyway, so I mostly used the relevant hours that were also applicable to DofE to complete the Volunteering and Skill sections. For the Residential section, I used a 2 week exchange program to France I did with the school; easily the best way to do it. Finally the expedition was a 5 day trek/camping in the Brecon Beacons in Wales (where the SAS and special forces do selections, we actually saw some of them on exercise)... it rained endlessly for 5 days, but that's Wales for you.

If anyone has any questions about the award etc, do fire away.

Wait, you're a deluded laughable bleep for thinking that doing it has any remote connection to the monarchy what so ever? Give up.

Just because he attributes his name to it does NOT mean there is anything royal about it, Phil just happened to be the first chairman, stop kidding yourself and climb out of the royal arse. At what point during the award has the Duke had ANYTHING to do with it???

FYI normal people just get the award sent to them rather than going to the palace and drooling on the Prince's shoe.