Yesterday, a friend of mine went out and bought a physical copy of FFXIV. Logged in and created a character. No problems?

Since yesterday, I've been attempting to make a new character on the second account (my early access account has run out and my double account has yet to be resolved) that I have with no success. ALL of the NA/EU servers show that character registration is closed.

So my question, how did my friend get in so quickly?