When you go to your account and see that on the very first page is explained how to be ready to play. Now what you can read is the following:
If you are a pre-order customer, the following steps are NOT required for Early Game Access. However, in order to play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ at the official launch of the game on December 20, 2011, 12:01AM EST (Pacific: December 19th, 9:01PM; European: December 20th, 05:01AM GMT, 06:01 CET), you must first answer a series of security questions and provide your contact information. Then you must redeem a Product Registration Code that came with the game, and either subscribe to the game or redeem a Game Time Code.
What I read here is that I'll be able to play till the 20th with my pre order code (god knows how much playtime I'll get...), but at the 19th (europe) I'll need to put in the code from the box orelse I can't play anymore.
So what gives? No more grace period? Am I at the whim of the postal office if they can manage to deliver my package during this busy postal period?