Windsor, Ont. LEGO fan turned away from Legoland gets apology, free tickets

LEGO was my favourite toy as a kid.

For years I built houses, forts, cars, entire towns from the deluxe box set I got one Christmas. I probably played with LEGO a little past the point when I should have outgrown it. But I loved the fact I could create almost anything from these basic building blocks. This was long before LEGO started issuing project-specific kits with tie-ins like Star Wars.

So the idea of Legoland, an amusement park devoted all things LEGO would have sent me into a giddy spin. I confess the child in me is still enthralled with the thought of a place where I could play with LEGO and view amazing constructions from this amazing toy.

But the adult in me would not be welcome, apparently, at least not without a child in tow.

That's what John St-Onge discovered when the Windsor, Ont., resident and LEGO fanatic made a four-hour pilgrimage to the Legoland Discovery Centre in the Vaughan Mills shopping centre, north of Toronto.

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Unlike me, St-Onge got into LEGO as a grown-up after buying some for his children. But he also bought LEGO for himself, amassing 75 sets amounting to 50,000 pieces, according to the National Post. He built everything from a simple cottage to the Statue of Liberty and Star Wars' Millennium Falcon.

So when the Legoland Discovery Centre opened this year, St-Onge, 63, and his 30-year-old daughter, Nichole, made the trip.

St-Onge's excitement evaporated when he was told adults could not be admitted unless they were accompanied by a child aged three to 12, the Post said.

The restriction is a product of our times, when the idea of an unaccompanied grown man wandering around a children's playground raises dark fears. That's how St-Onge saw it.

“[I was thinking] ‘What, are you painting a label on my back, that I’m a pedophile?’ " he told the Post. "That’s what really, really, really bothered me. What do you think I’m going to do in there?”

What St-Onge didn't know was that Legoland offers adults-only evenings once a month to cater to the young at heart.

The adult-visitor policy is posted on the Legoland web site, CTV.ca reported, but you have to click onto the Plan Your Visit section to find it. It was also not on the brochure Nichole St-Onge brought home, the Post said.

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Legoland marketing manager Lara Hannaford told CTV.ca the policy was instituted to protect children and families.

Hannaford apologized for the misunderstanding and has offered the St-Onges free passes into the attraction (it's 22 bucks for an adult), as well as covering gas and meal expenses for their trip.

Nicole St-Onge said her father is looking forward to the visit, though he hopes the company will state its policy more clearly.

"It still shouldn't have happened in the first place," she told CTV.ca. "But he's happy they're trying to make it better for us and we're not out all the money we wasted on a lost vacation."