OK, finally figured out the stupid boat thing. The boats (there are more than one, lol) come and go at all of the different docks outside of Darnassus. Two of them tell me I must have an expansion pack to ride, the third actually took me to the Eastern Lands. None of them are labeled or identified as to their destination, no signs, no NPC's to talk to... very bizarre.

So, I've got some new stuff to go do, yay. Also, managed to find a different random dungeon last night, lol.