My icloud email address was finally turned on yesterday. It was showing up before and for the last couple of weeks I had been testing sending an email to it but they were all rejected until yesterday.
Also checked appleid.apple.com and now I have the ability to make my iCloud email address my Apple ID and Primary Email Address so I can get rid of the gmail one!
However, that doesn't seem to actually work yet. But before yesterday, there wasn't even an option for it listed. So they are still rolling out pieces of puzzle slowly. Looks like we will finally be able to use just one email address for the Apple ID and iCloud email even if you were a previous Mobileme subscriber.