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Cruise line wins
limited approval
to serve alcohol

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

The cruise vessel American Dream, hit with various liquor violations in the past but now under new ownership, won Liquor Commission approval yesterday to serve alcoholic beverages 30 minutes before departure on various types of family cruises.

The application specified this would be for scheduled whale watching, Pacific Splash and Island Grill dinner cruises and also for individually scheduled charters and special cruises.

"We want to create revenue wherever we can," said American Dream Attorney Kenneth Hoo.

"This is a service for the guests who are on the vessel," Hoo said. "They do want to have a cocktail before the vessel departs."

Yesterday's commission vote was 3-2, with Chairman John Spierling and Commissioners Orlando Soriano and Clyde Eugenio voting for approval. Commissioners Avis Jervis and Chu Lan Kwock voted to deny the application.

Kwock noted the first whale-watching cruise is at 7:30 a.m., and she told Hoo such hours seem a bit early to serve alcoholic beverages.

"The authorized hours are 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.," Hoo said.

Kwock noted the American Dream has been in violation in the past. She said the same people still run the operation, even though the American Dream is under another corporation, Aquamarine Hawaii.

But Hoo said the operation has changed.

"These are different kinds of cruises, and these are family-oriented cruises," he said. "All of the cruises are now family-oriented." The commission fined former owner Dream Cruises Inc. $3,000 June 22 after finding the company guilty of two March 4 violations aboard the American Dream -- $2,000 for selling liquor without a license and $1,000 for offering liquor as an inducement.

Dream Cruises lost its license for the American Dream for selling alcohol to minors last year -- but won back the license for its vessel Rainbow I.

American Dream was cited in 1999 on March 27 and again on June 18 for violations involving minors.

Last Aug. 19, the commission fined Dream Cruises $3,350 for these violations and revoked liquor licenses for both American Dream and Rainbow I.

An Oct. 14 hearing reconfirmed the fines but reinstated probationally the Rainbow I license.