Yeah, I have the same problem, and since the last patch I get the infinite loading screen while transiting within Cyrodil. I'm assuming that this is one of the issues that Zeni are fixing right now. Taking the servers down on a Saturday is a risky move that's sure to send the rage-quitters running back to WoW and GW2, so I'm assuming they're doing it for a good reason.
Loading times generally are fairly high in this game compared to other mmo:s i have played and it's certainly not good thing. I hope their coders spend time trying to optimize that side.
Since the last patch I have to repeatedly attempt to log in and sacrifice a virgin chicken each time and pray to the lord of logging in to let me the feth in.
If the moons are aligned right I can get in.
I get a lot of crashes in Cyrodiil too and then have to go through the ritual sacrifice logins to get back on.
No crashes if I do PvE .... just in Cyrodiil.
I'm sure these "megaservers" sounded great on paper.