"The Venue" at River Cree brings in some great acts, and I'm a sucker for comedy shows... so sadly, I'll be back. Aside from the shows though, it is really not a great experience.
I will say that the security staff are incredibly friendly. Despite the fact that they were turning us away at the door because my friend didn't realize she couldn't use her expired ID to get in. The staff were polite and we jumped back in my car to run home to grab her passport.
I had purchased tickets to the Chris D'Elia show on February 6th for her birthday and we had planned on eating there before the show.
By the time we drove home and back, it was 7:30 (show starts at 9). I figured it would be tight, but didn't imagine that we wouldn't be able to get a seat for dinner anywhere. I had really wanted to go to Sage, but when we walked by, they were clearly packed and we chose to just keep walking. We got to Tap 25. They had a 40 minute wait time for a table. That wouldn't be enough time so we scurried over to the buffet. No luck there - the wait was about 25 minutes (it was almost 7:50 by this point because we had to wait in line at Tap 25 to find out there was a 40 minute wait).
Screw it. We noticed a "grab and go" place as we were running around, so we just grabbed some hot dogs and then headed into the venue to find our seats.
The "new" venue is not much better than the old one. You follow the signs in the casino to get there, and end up walking down a loooong hallway, passed their ice rink and then OUTSIDE to get to the venue. Again, I have to commend the security staff for doing a good job of keeping every one orderly. When Chris D'Elia came on stage, one of the first things he said was that it looked and felt like he was performing in an airplane hangar.
Drinks were a bit of a mess - you had to line up to buy drink tickets, and then line up again to get your drink. they were mixed well, but nowhere NEAR worth $9.00 a piece. That was ridiculous.
The show was awesome... but for the price, i expected to be sitting on something better than a folding chair. And there were times when I found the sound to be quite piercing.
The real nightmare came at the end of the show. WHEN THERE WAS ONLY ONE EXIT FOR 2100 PEOPLE! Are you kidding me? There were several other doors around the outside of the venue, that were NOT indicated as emergency exits only, but when people tried to use them, they ended up being turned around to come back in and wait in line with the rest of us.
Also, if you have to go to the restroom during the show, you have to go back outside and then into the rink area.
Oh - and another strange thing. As you walk passed the rink, there is a concession stand. MANY people assumed that that was the concession stand for the venue and stopped to get coffee or pizza, only to find out at the door that they couldn't bring it in with them. The concession staff should have been advising people of that - or at least put up a sign or something.
My Yelp resolution for 2016 was to stop rambling so much in interviews and just get to the point, but clearly that didn't work so well. So....
TL:DR - You will absolutely enjoy your show. But the rest of it will be a nightmare. read more