I'm rather new only having about 3 weeks of experience, I looked over many different pools and I liked the idea of the merged mining. I think I would like to see a few more coins added if they can be, I know many out there are worthless, but then a few years ago bitcoin wasn't worth the paper it was printed on either.
Is this round taking so long due to an increase in difficulty or just bad luck?
The merged Alt-Coins payout fine right now, and if you haven't, you should really look into Namecoin and Devcoin. NMC can act as a decentralized DNS and much more.
However, I've seen long rounds like this before, it could easily be difficulty. Normally, I've seen 9hr rounds and less, and been through a few other long ones as well.
It's worth it though. Plus the Dev. Is really nice and takes good care of the pool.