To make a long story long...

A few weeks ago (on or around the 9th), I was researching the achievements for the upcoming Lunar Festival for Fen (he's going for the Violet Proto-Drake Mount awarded by the What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement) and came across the Elders of the Dungeons sub achievement.

I've already honored the elders in Zul'Farrak, Sunken Temple, Maraudon, Blackrock Spire, and Blackrock Depths. I knew Stratholme wouldn't be an issue since I've got it on solo-farm now. I wasn't worried about The Nexus or Utgarde Keep since I've already been in and out of both of them. It occurred to me that I had no idea what the level requirements for any of the other Northrend instances were, so I decided to find out. I didn't have to look far because somebody posted a comment on the achievement page that listed all the dungeons and their lvl requirements.

I perused through the listing noting 76 (ugh!) for Gundrak and this is the line that started it all:

7. Elder Chogan'gada in Utgarde Pinnacle - (80) - Howling Fjord

Panic ensued... I frantically searched worldofwarcraft.com for their events calendar to find out when the Lunar Festival began... their calendar seems to be borked right now. Remembered I could view the guild calendar from the Armory... can't log into armory without authenticator?! Rawr! Finally decide that I'd just have to wait 'til I'm able to consult the in-game calendar. Come to find out that the Lunar Festival would begin in about 2 weeks on January 24th.

Two weeks to reach level 80? Certainly doable, but will I pull it off? I certainly have an advantage... I'm 74 and only JUST got off the boat in Borean Tundra*. Quick and easy Northrend starting zone quests, anyone?
* I've been helping my wife lvl her hunter so we could travel to Northrend together

I proceeded to fly through quest after quest, from Borean Tundra to Dragonblight, and on to Sholazar Basin. I hit 77 and bought Cold-Weather Flying and that really helped speed up the questing process. It was yesterday--the 19th--that I returned to the Dungeon achievement page to find out zones/locations for the dungeons. For whatever reason, I went back to the comments tab and saw a couple new comments:

You must be at least level 75 to enter Utgarde Pinnicle

and reply, which read:

Correct. Which actually results in level 75 being the MINIMUM level required to
get the Elder title! :D

EXCUSE ME, WHAT?!!

Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion! Thanks for reading!