Ordered my 16Gb gray WiFi Tuesday evening and paid extra for "expedited" delivery. Was stuck in "Prepairing for Shipment" for a while.
Finally shipped early Thursday morning from China via UPS. Is showing as scheduled for delivery Monday, but last tracking update shows arrival at Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong Thursday evening.
I can understand that it simply takes time for UPS to get it here from China, but was a little disappointed that Apple didn't appear to do anything on their end to "expedite" the actual order fulfillment process since I paid extra.
With Amazon or Newegg, for example, paying for faster shipping has also always resulted in prioritized fulfillment of the order. An order with standard shipping might take a day or day-and-a-half to actually ship while order with expedited shipping go out a lot quicker.