Hundreds of people greeted Prince William and Kate as they arrived on P.E.I. no Sunday night.

Eager onlookers filled the parking lot at the Charlottetown Airport, where the couple arrived just before 7 p.m.

Members of the crowd peeked through airport fencing and parked their cars along the airport road in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the royal couple.

"Oh, it's very exciting," said Islander Edna Younker, who watched through the airport fence. "I've been waiting for a very long, long time to come down and see the princess and the prince."

Younker's nephew Andrew MacKenna brought flowers.

''She looked right at us and smiled!'—Linda Mullin-Patterson

"Probably gonna give them to Kate," he said. "'Cause she's the royal one and stuff like that."

Ruth Parks travelled from Moncton, N.B., to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they made their Island visit.

"It's just — I don't know — kind of a privilege to be here the first time they come to Canada as a married couple," Parks told CBC News.

Motorcade closely watched

Members of the College of Piping played as William and Kate got off the Canadian Forces Airbus aircraft.

After shaking hands with a few dignitaries and receiving flowers from two young girls, the royal couple entered a black car and left the airport by motorcade.

People also lined the airport driveway and the city's Brackley Point Road to watch the motorcade pass.

"She looked right at us and smiled!" exclaimed an excited Linda Mullin-Patterson of Quebec. "Hopefully, I got that on camera."

Oreila Atkinson of Moncton, N.B., described the excitement surrounding the couple's arrival.

"The people around us were just huddling and wouldn't let us go — and squishing us and cheering and going crazy. It was wonderful!"

Will and Kate drove to a private media reception on the Charlottetown waterfront Sunday night, where large crowds also gathered to cheer, wave and snap photos. After the reception, the couple retired for the night at the lieutenant-governor's house.

Monday's activities kick off with an official welcome at Province House at 10 a.m., followed by a walkabout on Great George Street.