I tell folks to try right at the daily reset (11AM EDT US). Yeah I have had friends get offset by not being able to create a character. Told them to just keep trying every 5-10 minutes and within an hour, they got in. The issue was way worse 6 years ago, I HAD to be on Excalibur and it was always shut down (it was by far the most populated one because Yoshi P played on it, at least back then). Someone told me to try at reset (back then it was something like 5AM my time). Got up to try it, took about a week, but eventually I got in.