The issue with shopping for mattress toppers is it's all so subjective to each individual. First, mine was missing the straps to hold it down, and this thing needs those for sure. That aside. If my partner hadn't already fallen asleep I would have thrown it on the floor after the first while of tossing and turning and definitely after waking up in pain. Is firm or soft? Um, both? If your a smaller lighter person it's probably firmer. It sinks a lot. A lot. Without those straps it pulls up off the bed all over while at it. The amount of memory foam is miniscule. Since it's egg rate style your getting maybe a half inch. So your essentially sleeping on a large couch cushion. I thought the foam would be firmer but it's not at all really. The pictures depict the memory foam as a "gel swirl" the gel being cooling the white being regular foam. Mine was all white with a couple small blue splotches. Yes it was hot. One night of torture was more than enough. Now the mattress protector I didn't use. I pulled it out and seen it's a very nice material on the outside, very soft. It's a true thick vinyl backed protector though and those don't breath so I put it back in the package. It seems nice quility though for sure. I had high hopes but it wasn't for me at all.I had free return I just had to figure out how to get it into a box. Luckily I have a family member who was able to get me a nice large box. That's only a small part. You gotta get it in. I'll tell you what I did so it may help someone else. I had saved the plastic it came in. (I only slept on it one day and knew it was going back) so I laid a clean flat sheet on the floor and hauled it out to it. Step one lay the plastic down and working with another person or 2 fold it into 3rds and you should be able to work it into the plastic, someone will hold it down in there while another takes tape (I used packing tape on a cutter) and starts making wraps going down it, on the plastic only of course. So it'll be a giant roll in plastic when your done. Then you gotta try to start rolling it from one end. This took an entire person's sheer will and body weight laying on it and slowly working it. Another person can help while also potentially make a few relief cuts in the plastic if it's getting too much pressure and not escaping. Remember since this is mostly regular foam and not memory foam it don't stay squished at all on its own. So now you got it rolled and this person is laying on top of this roll unable to move because it's fighting back. (This was an entire 6ft man fighting the roll) Take that tape and try to work around the human laying on it and wrap it. Ideally your gonna do whole wraps around it. It's team work but it worked out. None of this could have been done without that plastic, it's the lifesaver here. So if you threw your plastic away and need to send it back, go get some plastic sheeting, heavy enough for the pressure it'll be enduring, it'll be a life saver for working this into something you can box.