ok, I have no clue how to plan a trip. This is really sad. How do you go about figuring out your trip planning?

I know I want to see a couple of things in France, and maybe stay in Spain a couple of extra days. I'd like to give myself some flexibility, in case, for instance, the flight doesn't go well, and I have to miss Madrid and take the train from Paris and meet up with the choir. It would be nice to be able to go to Madrid and wander around later and see that. I also want to go to the Lascaux region, and spend some time in Gay Paree...

My parents had a "thing" about trips with multiple destinations. I think that they did a couple of times and didn't like it. I inherited their bias, and generally prefer vacations where you go to one city or place. Thus, I have virtually no experience planning vacations where you go to different cities or countries. I find that I really have more of a chance to see things in depth and it takes a while to get the lay of the land.

However, my parents also had a “thing” about Yosemite in summer… and I always heard how terrible and crowded Yosemite is in the summer. For years I avoided Yosemite in summer for fear of crowds. And it is TRUE… Yosemite Valley is PACKED in the summer. But any walk longer than half a mile long… you leave the masses on the valley floor behind and have Yosemite to yourself. So take my parents’ travel advice with a grain of salt.

I also REALLY enjoy planning vacations. I like the planning and reading about the destination almost as much as the going there.

When I went to Europe with a friend about 10 years ago, we had a vague plan. We had plane tickets and a time frame. We booked a hotel for the first night we were there, and after we got there we booked that same hotel for the night before we were flying out. Otherwise we just planned a few days at a time while we were there. It worked reasonably well, but if I did it again, I would rather have the rooms all booked in advance, but I am just like that.
Definitely check out a travel guide or two, check out some websites and make a list of what you would like to see and do. Then just work from there.

I am thinking of keeping it very casual, part of me is thinking of just completely winging it, and not even registering for rooms, except for maybe planning one week in Paris and getting a room for that. Doing some off-shoot trips from Paris, maybe, then heading over to England to catch the boat. Granted, this is all hypothetical because Cunard hasn't gotten back to me with a booking yet.

I have never been to Europe, so I can't help with that specific region, but I am a huge fan of travel books. They were a Godsend to me in planning my trips to Maui, the Big Island and Kauai in Hawai. I bought Frommer's Caribbean some years ago and I found it too dense for my short-attention-span brain. For the Hawaiian islands, I LOVED the Revealed series (Maui Revealed, etc.). I'm not sure if they have books in that series for the European countries but, if they do, I strongly recommend them.

There are also a lot of travel boards on the Internet. I used them extensively before I went on my first cruise, so that I would know what to expect and not be so nervous. I knew the whole layout of the ship before I ever got on it--where the dining rooms were, etc.--and that increased my comfort level immensely. CruiseCritic.com is the site I used for cruise research and, even though you're not cruising, there ARE cruises to some of the European countries/cities, so you might still be able to find some great advice on there.

As I recall, you are (or were) an AOL member. They have extensive travel boards as well (or used to, at least). I find that getting a lot of opinions from people who've actually "been there, done that" help me a LOT in choosing what I want to spend my too-short vacation time doing or seeing.

I'm not a big planner. I usually have my hotel and flight planned and that's about it. I love to just walk around and get the feel for a city and then plan to see stuff based on what interests me.

If you want more structure, I really like the Frommer's website: www.frommers.com

They have everything from suggested itineraries depending on the length of your stay, info on hotels, restaurants, shopping, getting around that city, organized tours, etc....

Just put in your destination and a bunch of stuff comes up.

I'm so glad to hear that you decided to make the trip! Good for you!!!!