Blockading.info wallet tx and miner fee

I'm sorry if this has been addressed but I could not find an open topic which answered my questions.

I have created an online wallet on block chain.info and am attempting to transfer 0.5BTC to another wallet I own.

Despite the fact that the site says in multiple high visibility areas that the wallet and service are "free" I found I was assessed a 0.0001 BTC "Transaction Fee" why is apparently some sort of miner fee.

The problems I have are 1) there is no notification from their service that this fee will be charged, nor what the amount will be, it is only displayed after the fact, I was given no warning that it would be included. Nominal amount doesn't matter, failing to divulge actual costs is a problem regardless of price.
2) it has now been four(4) hours since the transaction was initiated and it is not complete/confirmed. The 0.5 BTC transaction has not appeared in the destination wallet either. What is the expected timeframe for this sort of transaction? And why am I paying a miners fee if it is not actually prioritizing payment to a useful timeframe?

My initial transfer of just over 1 BTC into this blockchain wallet took under ten minutes, why is transferring 0.5 BTC out taking so much longer? Is this sort of delay to be expected in all transactions? I don't see how this is useful for face to face purchases if I have to wait around for nearly half a day for my money to even be accepted.