the Italians seem keen to get on to the Ring too, so we might meet them there too!
Looks like there's quite a lot of interest, my suggestions for accomodations/ferries would be:
Speedferries are VERY cheap compared to competition, it gets to Bulougne instead of Calais, but who cares! Early booking recommended
Accomodations: again if you book in advance you are going to save money as opposed to showing up on the day. I've used the Campanile chain in France before, and while it's not 5*, the buffets are good and prices are very low. I'm planning to use them again. This is much better than the Campanile hotels we have in UK, btw.
For locations in other countries, I found that Laterooms.com is very good and shows many price ranges etc.
I would leave it up to the individuals to book their own accomodation, of course people can share info here.
This of course needs doing once we are happy with dates stopovers, itineraries again can be changed individually to suit different people