Terry,
Thanks for looking, I did just figure out something here though. The sheet was protected. Not the cell I was working on though, a totally different cell. But having the protection enabled, you can't add any of the validation stuff to Excel. I just turn of the validation before the code runs, then turn it back on afterwards, it adds just fine.

*run this line after everything is added
*activate the protection
.ActiveSheet.PROTECT( .T., .T., .T. )
*DrawingObjects:=True, Contents:=True, Scenarios:=True

Thanks,
jfh