Hello all,
I recently (last week) visited the Alhambra (it was just as great as I was hoping it would be!) and wanted to let the forum know about my experience with my advance-ordered Alhambra tickets, as I know this is a big source of pre-trip stress/annnoyance for a lot of people.
My time slot for the Nasrid Palaces was in the afternoon, so as per the RS Guidebook (and the information provided in my Ticketmaster confirmation email) I believed that I wasn't entitled to enter the ticketed areas of the grounds until 2:00PM. However, when I went to pick up my ticket mid-morning on the day-of I noticed my ticket said 8:00 - 20:00 (rather than 14:00 - 20:00 as I was expecting). I confirmed with the staff, and sure enough, when I wandered up to the complex I was able to get entry to the other (non-Nasrid) ticketed areas prior to 2:00PM.
I can't confirm this is a permanent change - all the staff told me is that my Ticketmaster email had "wrong information", and due to the language barrier I wasn't able to get a more precise explanation - however assuming it is a permanent change, hopefully this will make Alhambra planning easier for some of you!