I got my letter from the County Clerk before the PINs were given out, so I stopped in to the Clerk's office since I was there anyways.
I could have renewed right then, but that would have made me late for the swearing in ceremony of our new State Senator, Aric Nesbitt.
They said as long as they IDed me, they could give me the letter with a PIN right then.
That evening (the 14th of December, 201 I went on the MSP ONLINE renewal site and filled out the form.
Got my new CPL card in the mail 10 days later.

In the Clerk's office they said that it would take 30 days for the card to arrive. So, I think they have not seen enough go through this way to have a clear timeline.