Thirty minutes sounds like nothing compared to the 1:30-2hr adventure I would have had to embark if I would have decided on going to my "local" participating Best Buy. Consider yourself very lucky.
That aside, thinking how much we've heard about the Zune HD, I was very happy to see almost everything you mentioned to be little things I had not heard through other channels (e.g. headphones-gate being cleared up for me, this concept of "notifications," the details on playlist creation, and the packaging). But, what about the color options? Does Platinum look sleeker in person? Or does Black reign in appearance?