Dont worry, all the zones will be connected and we’ll get dragonriding from the start so we could travel faster. The continent is going to be huge and respectfully should be because of dragons and a mysterious land. They’re working on returning the adventurous aspect back so they have to be connected for it.
That was horrible for Shadowlands but it kind of did make sense for the realms to be apart. However, it still sucked. I feel like that portal was loading the next zone and felt forever on bad internet.