u/Weak-Hawk-9693

Full disclosure: I was already all-in on the R2 before my demo drive, so I expected to like it. I didn’t expect to come away loving it even more.

We drove it, rode as passengers, played with everything we could, and by the end my wife and I were both grinning like kids. Our current lease doesn’t end until March 2027, and our R2 invite window is Dec. 2026–Feb. 2027. The original plan was to wait until the lease was up. After today? We’re both trying to figure out how to make the timing work so we can get the R2 sooner.

A few things that stood out:

**Sound system:** I know there have been plenty of complaints, but it sounded great to us. Our current vehicle has a Bose system, so it’s not like we’re coming from a bad setup. Maybe I’m not enough of an audiophile- I mostly listen to ’80s music - but I honestly have zero complaints.

**Haptic steering wheel controls:** Based on Reddit, I was expecting to dislike these. Instead, they were intuitive and worked exactly as I expected. I kept waiting for the frustration everyone talks about, and it never came. I really don’t relate to the criticism after using them.

**Glass roof heat:** I live in the Dallas area, and today it was 103°F. If there were ever a day to test the glass roof, this was it. I was already planning to get ceramic tint because of everything I’d read. Honestly, I barely noticed any radiant heat from the roof. Maybe the tint will still happen, but after today it doesn’t feel nearly as necessary as I expected.

**Acceleration:** Everyone says the launch is insane, and they’re right. It absolutely pins you back in the seat. It’s ridiculous in the best possible way.
For context, my wife and I are both 55. We left feeling like two teenagers who had just discovered their dream car. The funniest moment was when my wife—who has never had any interest in camping—started asking the Rivian rep about the rooftop tent accessory. I just laughed. Apparently the R2 has us both imagining adventures we never even considered before.

Obviously this was a short demo drive, so I’m not claiming it’s perfect or that long-term ownership won’t have its quirks. But as a first impression? It exceeded my already high expectations in almost every way.

I can’t wait to own one.

Full disclosure: I was already all-in on the R2 before my demo drive, so I expected to like it. I didn’t expect to come away loving it even more.

We drove it, rode as passengers, played with everything we could, and by the end my wife and I were both grinning like kids. Our current lease doesn’t end until March 2027, and our R2 invite window is Dec. 2026–Feb. 2027. The original plan was to wait until the lease was up. After today? We’re both trying to figure out how to make the timing work so we can get the R2 sooner.

A few things that stood out:

Sound system: I know there have been plenty of complaints, but it sounded great to us. Our current vehicle has a Bose system, so it’s not like we’re coming from a bad setup. Maybe I’m not enough of an audiophile- I mostly listen to ’80s music - but I honestly have zero complaints.

Haptic steering wheel controls: Based on Reddit, I was expecting to dislike these. Instead, they were intuitive and worked exactly as I expected. I kept waiting for the frustration everyone talks about, and it never came. I really don’t relate to the criticism after using them.

Glass roof heat: I live in the Dallas area, and today it was 103°F. If there were ever a day to test the glass roof, this was it. I was already planning to get ceramic tint because of everything I’d read. Honestly, I barely noticed any radiant heat from the roof. Maybe the tint will still happen, but after today it doesn’t feel nearly as necessary as I expected.

Acceleration: Everyone says the launch is insane, and they’re right. It absolutely pins you back in the seat. It’s ridiculous in the best possible way.
For context, my wife and I are both 55. We left feeling like two teenagers who had just discovered their dream car. The funniest moment was when my wife—who has never had any interest in camping—started asking the Rivian rep about the rooftop tent accessory. I just laughed. Apparently the R2 has us both imagining adventures we never even considered before.

Obviously this was a short demo drive, so I’m not claiming it’s perfect or that long-term ownership won’t have its quirks. But as a first impression? It exceeded my already high expectations in almost every way.

I can’t wait to own one.

I have a 1600W hair dryer. Do most cruisers bring their own or use the one on board?

Hi all - we’re sailing Celebrity Xcel out of Barcelona in July. We checked in about two hours after online check-in opened, and the earliest arrival time available to us was 11:30 AM.

I’m trying to get a realistic sense of whether we actually missed earlier slots, or whether 11:30 AM is commonly the earliest normal arrival time for recent Xcel sailings out of Barcelona.

For anyone who has recently sailed Celebrity Xcel, especially from Barcelona:

What was your assigned arrival/check-in time?
What was the earliest time slot you saw available in the app?
Did earlier slots like 10:30 or 11:00 AM exist?
If you arrived before your assigned time, were you allowed in, or did they make you wait?

EDIT: my wife and I are Retreat guests in a sky suite.

I bought an ASUS BW-16D1HT with firmware 3.10 a few months ago with the plan to use MakeMKV for ripping both Blu-ray and UHD discs.

At first, it worked fine with regular DVDs and even completed a couple of Blu-ray rips, but most Blu-rays would eventually fail with bad sector errors.

The drive was installed in a Mercury external enclosure, which was connected through an Anker TB5 docking station. Since the dock provides over 140W of power, I didn’t expect power delivery to be an issue.

Long story short: the bad sector errors were caused by insufficient power reaching the drive.

I connected the enclosure directly to my M3 MacBook Air using a USB-C to USB-A adapter, and since then it has ripped dozens of discs with zero errors.

So if you’re seeing bad sector errors with this drive, don’t immediately assume the discs or drive are bad. Try connecting it directly to your computer first.

First time sailing Celebrity (Retreat) out of Barcelona. Mainly trying to understand how the port is laid out and how easy it is to find the Retreat/suite check-in line. Any recent experiences appreciated.