Rosetta Stone

Hi everyone.

I've recently started learning Russian, and I was hoping to make a respectable amount of progress over the summer. Originally I was going to take lessons at an institute in Boston, but my parents don't seem to like the idea (and they'll be helping with the funding, so it's not entirely my call). The alternative suggested was the Rosetta Stone software (all three levels) and meeting up with a family friend to practice conversation.

My question is this: is that a good idea? How well does the Rosetta Stone system work, and how much can I expect to accomplish? Could any of you share experience you've had with this software, whether in Russian or another language?

I did the demo on their web site and it seemed like it might be useful to some extent, but I'm not sure how well it would stand on its own in terms of teaching me certain aspects of the language (like cases). Besides, it's supposed to be teaching language the way we learn as children, but a) my brain's obviously not wired that way anymore and b) learning new languages generally comes easily enough to me, or at least I relish the challenge, so I'm not necessarily looking for the "easiest" way to learn.

Thanks in advance. Sorry if someone has posted about this before, but I looked through the tags and didn't find anything related.