Straight from ConQuest 36:
"George told us a long tale. His publishers told him the mostest it could be was 1600 manuscript pages. He passed that and a decision was made that it would have to be split in two. He thought about that and rejected it and proposed an alternative.
AFFC will be the size of AGoT. There will be no Daenerys chapters. There will be none of the chapters up North. The chapters in the South are done and in the hands of the publishers - George expects to announce a specific fall publication date. That means he can spend a little more time cleaning up the events in the North and present a coherent tale with a beginning and an end.
He expects some of his fans to be upset when their favorite characters don’t appear."
This has been confirmed by Parris, Martin’s SO, and these reports have also been added to the So Spake Martin collection.
So, those of you who haven’t yet pre-ordered your copy (or copies), why not do so at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk? Apparently they are supposed to come out more or less at the same time this time around, although the UK may be some weeks ahead.