I wanted to go to Northrend from Orgrimmar, to do some transmog runs. But as it turns out, the Dalaran Portal next to the portal trainer was the Broken Isles port. So I went back and tried the other Dalaran portal by the stairs… and it was also the Broken Isles port. Pretty sure one of those is supposed to go to Northrend, right?
No. There’s a zeppelin to Northrend, but no portal in Org. If you want to go to Northrend’s Dalaran, you have to go to Shrine and port from there.
I really don’t know why there are still two portals to the same place only a few feet from one another, but whatever. It’s still relatively quick to get back to Dalarend.
Orgrimmar > Dalegion > Shrine > Dalarend
Or
Orgrimmar > Dalegion > Wyrmrest Temple > Fly to Dalarend
Or
Buy one of the teleport rings to cut out the middleman.
Yeah, it just finally occurred to me recently that WotLK is the only expansion content you can’t directly teleport to from SW/Org without purchasing an expensive ring or grinding Argent Crusade rep to get their tabard.
There are portals to Hellfire Peninsula, to every Cata zone, to Jade Forest, and to Boralus or Zuldazar. And of course WoD’s Garrison Hearthstone and Legion’s Dalaran Hearthstone (oh yeah, and also a portal to Legion Dalaran).
Northrend is completely left out.
On the other hand, there is a bit of faction imbalance in this regard due to the events of BfA: Undercity now has a direct portal to Howling Fjord in place of the old zeppelin. There is no equivalent for the Alliance, as no Northrend travel ever departed from Teldrassil.
EDIT: Hmm, while leveling allied races, I have discovered that low-level Horde toons have a big travel advantage over low-level Alliance toons, thanks to these UC portals. A Horde toon leveling in the southern part of Eastern Kingdoms and needs to get to Orgrimmar just has to take a FP down to Grom’gol, pop through the portal to UC, and then take another portal to Orgrimmar. Quick and easy.
An Alliance toon leveling in southern Kalimdor needing to get to SW is forced to take a FP all the way to Ratchet or Theramore, wait around for a boat, and then take another FP from Booty Bay or Menethil.
A Horde toon leveling in southern Kalimdor is as bad, they have to take a flight all the way back to Orgrimmar.