Flying into Barcelona from Hawaii

Do you have sleep issues at home? Not getting a good night's sleep your last night at home will make things worse. If you get a fair amount of sleep on the plane (an inflatable neck pillow helps some people), you'll recover faster.

Beyond that, it's an individual thing. Jet lag (as opposed to sleep deprivation) affects people differently. When I was younger I was OK the day after I arrived. I'm 66 now and have chronic sleep issues. On my current trip I didn't feel normal until Day 5 (which is extremely unusual).

The usual guidance is to stay hydrated on the plane but avoid alcohol. You have plenty of time to experiment with a sleep aid like melatonin at home, if your doctor approves.

If you're on a budget, you might not want to pre-pay for three expensive activities on your first full day, but many people schedule themselves that way and survive.

Is this too ambitious?

Even if you had made no mention of age, given the 'reversal' of the clock , my answer is 'Yes'

Your flight arrive 1030PM, so its likely past local midnight before you get in bed and have to get up 6(?) hours later to hit the showers, eat, dress and get to your 1st destination.

Not what I would schedule, but you know how you travel and react.

My parents are your age and the jet lag even from the East Coast is bad for them. So yes it is too ambitious. I wouldn't plan anything major until the afternoon.

In a previous life I was a professional business traveler, based in Singapore and required to make several trips per year to the east coast of the US ... 12 time zones in one gulp. I had great difficulty sleeping on planes and so suffered greatly as a result. That is, until my doctor suggested I try Ambien, which turned out to be a life saver for me. With it I was able to get 6-7 hours of quality sleep on the flights over and back and was able to acclimate much more quickly to the "day for night" aspect of the time change. I never experienced any of the drug hangover that's common with other, over the counter, sleeping aids. The trips were still a real bear but much less so than had previously been the case. I recommend that you check with your doctor, get a prescription and try it in a controlled environment at home - about 3% of the people who use it can experience unwanted side effects (or it doesn't work at all). All I can tell you is that it worked for me. Fact is that my wife and I still use it when we have to deal with long flights from the US to Europe or Australia. We both swear by it and have for years. Do consult with your doctor before giving it a try, however.
I agree with everything Kaeleku has said - it's going to be rough no matter how you slice it and the layovers aren't going to help. Depending upon the length of your layovers in LA and London you might want to check the respective airport websites to see if they offer "day rooms" - a place within the terminal area where you can rent a small room (with a lie flat bed) by the hour. Being able to slip into one for a quick nap will help quite a bit.
As others have said I would take it real easy your first day. Trying to cram a lot into the one day you have before boarding your cruise ship will only set you back further. Better (IMO) to sleep in that first morning, then spend the day outside in the sunshine to start resetting your circadian clock. You're going to be plenty tired - plan to baby yourself and don't push it.

"Right now I have the La Sagrada Familia scheduled for 10 am, Park Guell at 3 pm and a Flamenco show at 7:30pm. Is this too ambitious?"

Coming from New York, there's no way I would do this. Coming from Hawaii, as Kaeleku says, that goes TRIPLE.

I've now taken three trans-Pacific trips. When I went the first time, I thought that since the time difference was about 12 hours, the jet lag would be equal in each direction. Oh boy was I wrong! I've learned that for me, when going west (from New York), I don't do too badly. When going east (back home to New York), the jet lag lasts for days, and my sleep-wake cycle can be completely reversed for a while (as Kaeleku also described).

Getting back to your specific trip, I've learned - the hard way - never to plan anything important for the first day in Europe (like a museum with specific artwork I really want to see). As acraven says, that particularly includes pre-paid activities. And worst of all, even if I do manage to stay awake for part of the day, I will definitely fall asleep early, so that flamenco show would turn into an expensive nap.

I have particularly found that being indoors - even for short times - makes me extremely tired on day one. So, Park Guell, being outdoors and not requiring intense concentration, might work well then. But your other day one activities wouldn't be good for me at all. If you have non-refundable tickets for them, just do your best and don't be too upset if you can't fully enjoy the activities. If you haven't bought tickets yet, buy them for the morning or afternoon of the 15th.

Sorry to be so negative - but at least you can prepare now, rather than have an unpleasant experience you didn't expect.

You may be the first to fall dead asleep at a flamenco show.

No one knows exactly how you'll react (and your travel parter may react differently too which complicates it even more), but every time you cross a time zone your body gets more and more out of synch and it takes time to get back in synch (that's what jet lag is essentially, and it's best if your body naturally resets itself but it needs time to do so). I would keep your first day totally unplanned and light, focusing on just walking around and taking in the sun and getting your bearings. If you get to your desired sites, then great, but realize that you may feel completely "out of it" for several days and you should at least take it easy the first day.

One thing that you can do is to start training yourself early to a new time period by forcibly shifting your sleeping schedule a week or so before your flight...albeit slowly. People do this so the readjustment period isn't as drastic.

I have chronic sleep issues at home. However, I'm pretty lucky to sleep well on vacation. I get a good nights sleep the night before a trip. On the plane I take my normal prescription sleep medication and melatonin(which I do not take at home) about one hour before what my bedtime will be in my arrival city. In other words, upon boarding I immediately change my watch to the local time of the city we are traveling to. We typically arrive late morning. I never even sit on the bed. We immediately go out and sight see. We try to plan a more active day over something that involves more standing or sitting. I don't plan a super expensive meal my first evening because I'm usually pretty sleepy by dinner. After dinner if its before 9pm, I walk around. At 9pm I take my normal evening medication and melatonin and drop in bed at around 10pm. The next day I shoot for getting up at around 8am and then we proceed with our vacation. We walk alot (sometimes 15 miles a day) and I'm usually quite tired by the time we return to the hotel. I typically wear ear plugs because hotels and streets can be noisy and "foreign" sounds have a tendency to wake me.

Melatonin is less of a sleep aid than it is a means to control circadian rhythm so it can be helpful with changes to your body's clock. I would try it some at home and perhaps talk with my doctor if its something new.

A few times we have taken a train ride when we arrive. This time it will be Madrid to Sevilla. That could be tricky, It is pretty hard for me to stay awake in a moving vehicle especially when I'm tired. I usually rationalize these kinds of issues with "isn't just great to be traveling to new and exciting places!"

All that said, your flight is substantially longer than mine typically are. We are typically in transit about 12 hours, especially if we have to connect somewhere.

Lots of sound advice above.

What you've got planned is going to be brutal. No way are you going to get through your first day as planned. Here are my suggestions:

1. See if you can change your flights. Yeah, you may have to pay a change fee, but weigh that against the consequences of not doing that...a few hundred bucks would be a good investment towards having a great trip rather than one that starts out with you miserable for several days. If you can change your flights/take the small financial hit, then I'd move the flight up by a day, two would be better (that would give you a day to simply recover, then a day to do the things you want in Barcelona). I'd also look into trying to reduce/eliminate the layovers - multiple, long layovers will make your outbound travel a real ordeal. Yes, I get it that you won't find a non-stop from Hawaii to Barcelona. But one-stops do exist (pretty sure you can fly non-stop from LAX, possibly a couple airports going the other way around - check Tokyo Narita, maybe Hong Kong). No matter how you slice it, that's a long slog, but with the advent of new ultra-long-range jets, airlines now have some very long routes available. Keep this in mind: one goal should be to try and make one flight as long as possible - because long flight = better chance for restful sleep, while shorter flights & layovers = less opportunity for restful sleep.

2. Assuming you can't change your flights, you need to:

2A) Try your best to get some sleep on the flights (the LAX-LHR flight is a long one, try hard to sleep then - skip the meals, skip the movies, tell the flight attendant to let you sleep), bring good ear plugs and know how to use them, an inflatable pillow, etc. Sleep is critical, do everything you can to enable that.

2B) Upon arrival in BCN, try to go right to sleep (even though your body will be feeling like it's noon).

2C) Be realistic about your planned activities the following day. Your 10 am plan to hit La Sagrada Familia seems very unlikely. The Flamenco show is even more unlikely. I'd reschedule La Sagrada Familia for that afternoon, or...

1. You haven't said what happens at the end of your cruise. Do you get dropped back in Barcelona, or is it a one-way to someplace else? If back in Barcelona, consider moving some (maybe all) of your activities to the end of the cruise - you'll have a better chance of staying awake for that flamenco by then, and you would certainly benefit from just having a full day to recover from the displacement trauma of your initial flights before you slog onto the boat. If you push too hard in Barcelona, the first several days of your cruise may be spent sleeping during the day and staring out the windows at night.

I so much appreciate everyone's advice! I have a Dr. appt tomorrow to get Ambien and have rescheduled the 10 am tour to the following morning. I can also cancel the flamenco show but haven't decided it I want too yet. I am also looking into less layovers.

"One thing that you can do is to start training yourself early to a new time period by forcibly shifting your sleeping schedule a week or so before your flight...albeit slowly. People do this so the readjustment period isn't as drastic."
So to do this I would be sleeping 12 hrs earlier? Not sure how to do this.

1.You haven't said what happens at the end of your cruise. Do you get dropped back in Barcelona, or is it a one-way to someplace else?

We go from Barcelona to Rome so no other chance to see Barcelona on this trip. I had originally scheduled our flights to arrive on the same day but the flight was changed by the airlines.

"One thing that you can do is to start training yourself early to a new time period by forcibly shifting your sleeping schedule a week or so before your flight...albeit slowly. People do this so the readjustment period isn't as drastic."
So to do this I would be sleeping 12 hrs earlier? Not sure how to do this.

It's simple (well, simple to say, less simple to actually do, if you have a life, job, family, other responsibilities).

You do it by shifting your sleep schedule an hour or so each day for maybe a week. Let's say you typically go to bed at midnight, and get up at 8 am (lucky you, living in Hawaii...). Start by shifting both times one hour earlier: go to bed at 11 pm. get up at 7 am. Next day, shift another hour: go to bed at 10 pm, get up at 6 am. Next day, hit the sack at 9 pm, drag your butt outta bed at 5 am...repeat until either you're on something close to European time (for you, 12 hours out-of-sync), or until you just can't take it anymore and you figure "close enough" when you're trying to go to bed at 6 pm and getting up at 2 am.

Obviously, there are limits to this trick, so don't beat yourself up if you don't make it all the way to European time at home. If you can shift at least a few hours, it can take the edge off the jet lag.

You will also probably find that the technique works best when you begin by waking up earlier - it's easier to force yourself to wake up an an unnatural hour than it is to force yourself to sleep at one. At least initially. Start getting up super-early, and after a couple days of that, it becomes a lot easier to fall asleep early, too (because of sleep deficit).

Good luck!