Welcome to Northrend!

That's what the sign said way back when, when WotLK came out. 

After a fun night at Best Buy, waiting in the cold till midnight, the game was bought thanks to the charitable contributions of a friend, the account was upgraded, and the fun began. I hit 80 exactly 10 days after the expansion came out. 

A lot of people hit it before me on my server. Even more people did not. But the one thing I've noticed is that you have the gung ho players, and the players who aren't so gung ho. Among the not so gung ho are those using Quest Helper, an addon that is meant (somehow) to help you quest (and yet is broken and does not). 

I've noticed the people following the little -------- lines -------- from one destination to another are more often than not finding that they're going places where the quest they are on don't have a presence. They're looting mobs that aren't going to drop the quest items they need. They're also not exploring and finding the drop quests that mobs so often have that are enticing but easily skipped by the focused QH user. I'm somewhat saddened. (You will notice I do not make links to this addon.)

My method was quite the opposite. Using the Achievement for each Zone to track my progress, I did every quest in order of their appearance in my quest log, even when new quests were added, or group quests appeared. In this fashion I was able to level, get the money I needed to save for things I wanted, and I could spend my time progressing rather than taking lots of little steps back. Additionally, I did the Zones in order of their appearance in the Achievement roster. I hit 80 in Grizzly Hills, long before I was heading into the higher reaches of Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, or Icecrown. 

The week I hit 80 was the week I got Loque'nahak. 

All said, I'm still feeling quite ahead of the game. 

Now, the thing is, a lot of people wouldn't do things this way, and I'm by no means saying my way was best, but I certainly hit 450 in Mining and Engineering just fine, I'm about 4k away from my motorcycle, and I'm feeling pretty good with my bear, spirit beast, cat, rhino, and owl. I'm revered or exalted with nearly every Northrend faction. I have 25 lovely dailies I can do a day. And Cooking's even 450 already without much fuss. Who could ask for more?