Please review itinerary, thank you

Your itinerary looks good. I would fly from Barcelona to Granada and take the train or the bus between the other cities.

Consider..............
Land Madrid, take AVE train to Seville
On last day in Seville leave early morning and take train to Cordoba to spend day, then take evening train to Granada
FLY from Granada to Barcelona
Take AVE train from Barcelona to Madrid

NOTE: Easter is Sunday April 21, 2019 and this is a jam packed week of festivities throughout Spain. Travel during this week will be more hectic, but the festivals are fantastic.
As soon as you firm up the date you will be in Granada BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE FOR THE ALHAMBRA. Do not delay this purchase.

Travel memory concern:

1. Land Madrid (airport, customs, car ride to train station, train ride and then getting to hotel in Seville = 5/6 hours
2. Train from Seville to Cordoba plus Cordoba to Granada and then getting to hotel = 4 hours
3. Fly from Granada to Barcelona plus car ride to hotel = 4 hours
4. Barcelona to Madrid on train plus car rides = 5 hours

My point is approximately one full day of your journey will be spent on additional travel "memories" accompanies by the associated stress of getting from point A to B. Over how many days did your daughter have to ENJOY seeing all these locations?
Believe me I know, we all desire to max our vacation dollars and time!
Our focus has become "what type of travel memories" do we desire to create?

13 nights on the ground is a healthy and wise investment, but please keep in mind you are spending at least four of this days either 1/2 day or more traveling from point A to B.

I strongly suggest you create a post requesting help from folks who have traveled during Easter to learn the impact upon their journey.

Enjoy!

Thank you both for your help. It gives us something to think about and perhaps to revise our plan. We are going after Easter so hopefully won't be as crowded. The travel time between places are indeed very long. I am tempted to skip Barcelona this time because it is more out of the way, though I don't know when we will be back to Spain again. It will certainly be more relaxed. Backing to drawing board again. Thanks!

Great job snagging that airfare - I daydream about those prices! We had to make that same hard decision to drop Barcelona from our 12-night Spain trip. The deciding factor was realizing I did not want to visit an airport during our vacation - ha! I am glad we did because we were able to spend 2N in Cordoba (our favorite town of the trip) and 1N in Ronda as well (wish we had 2N). We will be back to visit Barcelona, however! Enjoy planning!

Edit to add: We also arrived in Madrid in the mid-afternoon. We elected to stay in Madrid first and then backtrack for a final night before the flight back home. I know it is not ideal to backtrack and if we had arrived earlier we would have tried to keep traveling upon entry to a different city (Cordoba or Seville). I just kept thinking, "what if our flight is late and we miss our train?" But in hindsight I'm glad we did because it does take a bit of time to de-plane, get through immigration, etc, and then it is a good 40-minute trip on the regional train to get to the main Atocha station to catch a different train to another town. I don't say this to try to dissuade you from going to a different city day one. Just sharing my experience, in case it is helpful in planning.

Have fun!

I think it is an excellent idea to skip Barcelona on this trip. It is not a city where you'll be satisfied to have just two full days and a few jetlagged/zombified hours. Sticking to Madrid and points south will allow you to have a much less rushed trip.

Ok, if you drop Barcelona (which I would not suggest)......
Arrive and stay in Madrid
Then train to Seville w day trip to Cordoba
Then train to Granada
Train back to madrid and stay by airport for last night prior to departing for home.

STOP!
I just realized you are from the Seattle area. Rick Steve's office is in the Seattle area.
For a small fee they offer in person travel planning advice.
RUN TO THEIR OFFICE!

It sounds odd but your outlier is really Granada because there's no fast train service there. I think it's a good idea to see Granada and skip Barcelona, since it is easy to include in your next trip - it's hard to go to Spain only once :-)

I encourage you to include a 2-night stay in either Toledo or Cordoba. Both have enough sights for a full day plus and both are much better as overnight stays when the crowds disappear and the medieval streets are quiet and romantic.

Wow, thank you all for your suggestions. Taking all things into consideration, we decided to drop Barcelona for this trip, and to start with a smaller city for a perhaps easier adjustment for jet lag. So here is our revised itinerary.

Arrive in Madrid, go directly to Toledo for 2N

Seville 4N w/day trip to Cordoba

Ronda 1N

Granada 2N

Madrid 4N w/day trip to Segovia

How does this look? Better?

I think your itinerary looks wonderful! Try to get to Ronda earlier in the day if possible to see the sights and then enjoy the town in the evening after the crowds depart. Enjoy your trip. I hope you will post a trip review!

Thank you. We feel pretty good about this revised itinerary too. Now off to do more reading and research about hotels. Thank you so much for your help! I will remember to report back after the trip. : )

Personally I’d minimise hotel stays, and give myself time exploring the white villages from Ronda.

Arrive in Madrid, go directly to Seville 4N w/day trip to Cordoba
Ronda 2N w/day trip to white villages
Granada 2N
Madrid 5N w/day trips to Toledo & Segovia

Since you got such a great fare to Madrid, I'm guessing such a fare or close to it would occur again. I tend to concentrate on the regions/cities further away so as to complete everything I want to do in those areas. I would take 2 days from Madrid with the thought that you'll be back to Madrid and will be able to do more on another trip. I would take 1 day from Seville and stay 2 nights in Cordoba. In my opinion, any additional days could be added to amazing Barcelona.

Thank you for the great ideas. After more research and youtube videos, we decided we'd like to stay overnight at Toledo though it means one more hotel change. We will save Barcelona for a future trip. We really appreciated all your help.

I think that is a smart decision.