Also, I would recommend moving Portugal or the Netherlands higher on the list, since it would be neat to see how colonies work as soon as you get BtS. What better way to do so than with seafaring civs?
Well, I'd strike the Dutch of that list; the point of the ALC was to play unpopular leaders and I'm thinking William of Orange might be one of the most popular leaders (Cathy's old traits are delicious, after all).
Also, for colonies to be much use at all you need to play with several continents, and in a game where controlling yours and most of another won't give you the game. Terra might be good for this, or a large continents (one of the new variants like big and small maybe) game.