Says we should have the RP but the role doesn't seem to be activated for me?

Try going into setup > company > release preview Since last version they made release preview accounts opt in

that seems like way too long of preview time, its usually only 30 days before release date

I don't think anyone has access to the Release Preview account at the moment. One of my clients says they will have access starting in September. Checking the release preview page that jkabot mentioned will tell you when you can expect access.

Is the screenshot from sandbox? My sandbox account has the date of 3/13/2019 for release preview, which i think is going off that the last release preview end date. My production does shoe September though