I bought this mattress to go in our guest bedroom. It arrived in a large "roll" which resembled a large rug rolled up and I thought maybe they delivered the wrong item. We looked at the paperwork and made sure it was the mattress before unwrapping. It was heavy and my husband and I got it upstairs without much difficulty but definitely was a two person job. As soon as you cut the plastic the mattress starts to expand. It was to it's full size within a couple of hours. I didn't notice any real strong odor when I opened it and I've had it for a couple of weeks now and there is no odor. We ordered the medium firmness and it is firm which I like. It's very supportive and I think works very well for a guest bed. You'll either need a box spring or a platform bed b/c it's just the top mattress which was pretty thick. If you don't like firm go with the soft version of this b/c medium is still very firm. Thought long and hard before I ordered this and I'm glad I did, it's a very good mattress.