My Death Knight got to within 5% of level 80 without doing any quests in Storm Peaks or Icecrown so it is looking like it will be possible to reach level 82 without even leaving Northrend. I got to L72 before leaving Outland, and still had a lot of quests to do there. Next time through I will start Northrend in Howling Fjord to get the Kalu'ak daily then switch to Borean Tundra because I want to make the dailies a big part of my levelling.

I tested levelling from 80 with dailies on the beta realm, although xp could be adjusted (gold rewards from dailies already have been reduced), it is an option if the new zones are overpopulated. This happened a number of times in early beta.

Running dailies on my L80 Warlock gained a good level percentage just from my normal morning run (22 daily quests) starting at level 80.94 I got to 81.24. 8 of those quests are 'PvP' however I have yet to encounter any other faction players while doing these quests and I doubt this will change when cataclysm launches.

Having a litle bit of gold on these characters I hope to buy a few nice uncommon (green) items on the auction house, though my Warlock shouldn't need them before hitting the first level 81 zone. I have 3 crafted raid epics from patterns I bought on the auction house and I haven't even bothered to gem or enchant them yet.

Because it seems that it will be difficult to max out some professions without getting to at least level 84, dailies in Northrend are going to be significant for those with crafting alts. However it looks like it might only take a week playing around 90 mins per alt to get to level 82.

My focus in live has now switched to my Hunter, people are raving about how overpowered Mages are but my level 44 Hunter is able to take on multiple mobs 4-5 levels higher with relative ease. I'm not brilliantly skilled so most players should be able to do this. I want to get to level 48 to unlock the Venomous Ravasaur mount quest at which point I'll be aiming to get my Paladin to at least level 68. Currently he is 10/20 on the ravasaur quest and L55.5, but with mining can level quite quickly.