Realms service error (500) could not connect to realms: read timed out

for the last 3 days, me and my 2 friends on my realms have been unable to reliably connect to my realm. When you click on realms, the screen goes empty as seen on chad's screen pic. then, after 2-3 mins, it will show the 500 error screen. VERY occasionally it will attempt to load the actual world. we've been seeing it on downdetector website the last few days as well - so its obviously an issue minecraft should know about - but there's no info on it anywhere.