beat me to it. Probably exceptional because of the holidays.

Another take: IMHO this doesn't have to do with the holidays and has more to do with the timing of the Cataclysm release. Blizzard has said previously that they regretted the long delay between the fall of Illidan and the WoTL expansion. By doing this (Arthas around April) they can release the new expansion in Q4 (around November again?) and keep the time from the "end" of WoLK content and Cataclysm release to the stated ideal of a 6 month window.

I'd like to be wrong, I'd rather see Cataclysm earlier than later, but to me this indicates more than ever that we won't be seeing it until the end of next year.

I'm sure the fact that there are other high profile MMO's being released beginning/middle of next year has nothing to do with the delayed content either :)

i think its got to do with both the holidays and the release of the expansion. Im sure the timing of this stuff has all been planned out. Summer release of expansion might be nice

Did no-one else think 28 Days Later when they read that? Am I the only one?

Yeh. By Jan 5th, our main tank should be sober again from new years.

Makes perfect sense that the work by the gnomes would result in the longest delay. Seems logical the follow-up delays will be shorter.