Hi, thanks for the response and suggestions!

I tried what you suggested by checking my firewalls, but even with them turned off I got the issue. I gave adjusting the graphics settings all down to their lowest settings a go, but the loading screen is still stuck.

Before contacting support, I did delete the game data files as well as the FFXIV folder files a few times- first just on its own, then with a restart of my laptop, and then alongside a full reinstall of the game. I see that come up often in technical support threads for the game so that was the first thing I tried. It seems those two characters that have gotten stuck just don't want to load!