I hear the best time for a world that is always congested (like balmung) it's best to try right after maintenance, or try in the middle of the night.

That's what I did for a new character on Balmung, was right after maintenance.

But I'm serious too with my previous answer, if you *want*, despite it being annoying, after creating you character and trying to pick a world, just refresh every 3 min. You're bound to find and opportunity at some point. If you don't want to do that, and once again even though it's annoying, try at a time like 3am if you can. I know not everyone can stay up that late.

Or just keep checking the server status with that link posted above. It should tell you if a world is congested or not.

But people tend to flock towards the world's with exp bonus. Might take some time.