The answer to this question totally depends on where you live, and you give no indication of this.
Pre-ordering is the best bet, and that starts tomorrow. Not sure what time.
Where I live, I can pick mine up at Best Buy. Or, I can go to the Apple Store.
When I bought my iPad 2, there was a line in front of the BestBuy. I stood in that line for a total of about an hour, starting from when I got in until when I got my device. It was fun, actually, but I live in a smallish town.
For my iPad 3, I went to the Apple Store (I didn't even know we had an Apple Store [in fact, I had not even been inside an Apple Store]) which is in the mall. I got there an hour before the store opened and there was a line (not super long as in a big city, but a line nonetheless. And since I had pre-ordered for pickup in the store, I went to the front of the pre-order line (there were two lines, one for preorders and one for not). So I basically got in the store well before many others did who had arrived before me. Apple even bought out coffee and cakes. They even got me a mall chair to sit in. And I chatted with some nice fellow who was from the other line. It too was fun. I had my iPad at like 10 minutes after 7. I could have waited for it to arrive at my house but I knew I had to work that day. I got it quicker by pre-ordering and picking it up at the Apple store. Totally nice experience, both times, but again, I'm not in NY or LA, I'm in a small city in SC.
Unfortunately, I had pre-ordered the Wifi only version. I later decided I wanted the 3G version. So, on release day, on the way home, I drove to the Best Buy in another city (closer to where I work) and walked right in an got the cellular version of the iPad three. No lines at all. Quick and easy. Apple made sure there were a lot more iPads in the channel in 2012 than they did in 2011. I wasn't a user in 2010.
Some folks don't like standing in line, period. If you are that sort, pre-order for delivery to your home. Not exactly fun, but definitely painless.
