What a great find for the little ones! We attended the theatre just before Halloween for Bunnicula…read more(classic vampire bunny story), it was great - the little ones really liked it, and we were entertained and laughing as well. They are located on Cannery Row, looking out across the Prospera Place parking lot towards the Delta Grand Hotel. They also have classes and workshops as well as live theatre. The theatre itself is more of a large room with a stage area and seating all on one level. The seating is folding chairs, about 6 rows I would guess. They have cushions at the front on the floor for the kids. It appeared they had seating for about 50 people, but it was only about 1/2 full when we were there. I recommend you come early for the best chance at good seating, if you were short and stuck in the back it might be an issue (unless you wanted to lounge with the kiddies of course). They keep the shows to around an hour, which was perfect. It was a fun night out, and we'll definitely do it again; highly recommend you check it out.

Not worth your time or your $$$. Stay away. Very far away…read more Every year they need to hire a new chef and wait staff, so there is no consistency. Food and service here are hit and miss. Customer service has declined precipitously over the last decade. This place is run to the vast exclusion of all other fishing opportunities on the ranch. Nevertheless, the biggest fish in Stoney Lake are no bigger than medium-sized (3-4lbs), if that. The sister lake, Minnie Lake, is far, far worse. What used to be one of the premier trophy lakes in the province has been turned into an unmitigated disaster by the latest manager in charge of Fishing & Rec at the DLR. He is a self appointed expert (in all things fishing), and has taken on the role of deciding how to stock the two lakes - despite the fact that he has no training and no clue what he is doing. The result? Massive overstocking, a lake full of tiny tiddlers, and sick and starving fish. These lakes will never recover until a few years after they finally fire the manager. He should focus more on promoting himself on social media - constantly putting out films of himself getting spooled by 2-pounders, calling 3-pounders "hogs" and "slabs", and killing fish with his throat pumping technique. Find another venue if you value your time and $$. There are several other fishing resorts that will value you as a customer a short drive from this one. Drive there.

My son has a history of adoption trauma, prenatal substance exposure, medical trauma, and learning…read moredisabilities. At age 13/14, he got entangled with a cocaine dealer in our small rural community, and his behaviour spiralled out of control. We tried everything to get him help through the public system: counselling, psychiatry, police, medication... Nothing worked, and we were out of options. It was a living nightmare for everyone in our home. When he ran away to stay with the dealer (and the police wouldn't do anything about it!), we staged a complicated rescue mission and tricked him into going to Venture. He ended up staying with a host family whom he loved, and he made a lot of progress with his amazing counsellor. He was there for 6 months (we had to fundraise from family and community to pay for it), and at the end he thanked us for sending him there. We felt like we finally had our son back. He said it saved his life, and we know that is true. HOWEVER: Less than a month after returning home, he ended up back with the dealer, and his life has been a downward spiral over the two years since then. There are many factors involved in this. One is the fact that Venture is NOT an addiction treatment program--it is a behaviour treatment program, which means that they work on changing (reprogramming) external behaviours, not the underlying emotional issues that cause the behaviours. Because he had no access to his addictions while at Venture, my son was able to convince everyone that he was recovered, and he learned how to put on a really good act and to lie even more convincingly than he had before--all hallmarks of the disease of addiction. He was also severely traumatized by being "abandoned" at Venture. I put that in quotation marks because it's the word he uses, but it is essentially what happened: We had convinced our son to "visit" the school, and we hoped that after a tour and a conversation with staff & admins, maybe he'd decide on his own to stay there. However, as soon as we arrived, one administrator took me & my husband to a back room to do the paperwork, while another took our son to another room and informed him that he would be staying. We were not allowed to see him again, not even to say goodbye. He had already gone outside to wait for us, so they snuck us out the back door and instructed us to drive away without him noticing. When we looked back, he was sitting forlornly on a fence, staring out at the prairies. It was heart wrenching! All we could do was leave him a note, and we had no other choice. He was very angry with us, and traumatized by the abandonment, and he tells us he lost all trust for us that day. His dealer buddy quickly took advantage of that to lure him back in. He desperately needs mental health & addiction treatment now, but is afraid to try it because of his experience with Venture. Venture needs to consider that many of the kids attending are already traumatized, and their intake protocols should therefore be more trauma-informed. If I were to do it all over again, I would have insisted on at least giving my son the chance to make the decision to stay, and barring that, at least an opportunity to give him a hug and say goodbye. As it is, we spent several thousand dollars of other people's money, and I don't know if I will ever have my son back.

When I was 13 I was sent to this school. I'm 25 and I've only now processed the horrors that I…read moreexperienced. The school is built on exploiting vulnerable parents & depriving students of basic human needs. No music, makeup, your own clothes, alone time, contact with friends, and family calls were limited to once a week for 15 mins. Venture academy systematically made the students feel out of control, so they would act up, in order to show the parents that we needed to stay their longer allowing the school to fill up their pockets. My mom has said that sending me here was the worst mistake of her life. Save your money & heart ache - send your children somewhere else.. or better yet just get them a good therapist at home.