For most people, the phrase family vacation imparts a subtle torture. And there may a point during All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise when the average viewer is antsy to jump ship. But the 500 families who secured berths on the inaugural, 7-day cruise celebrating gay family life were nothing less than tickled to take part--at least accord ing to the 90-minute documentary filmed during the 2004 summer cruise from New York City to the Bahamas that debuts tomorrow on HBO.

The cruises are the brain child of Rosie and Kelli O'Donnell, who have four children of their own, and their longtime friend Gregg Kaminsky. The actual proprietors of R Family Vacations are Kelli O'Donnell and Kaminsky, but Rosie lends the film its title and the enterprise its face. A documentary called Kelli and Gregg's Family Cruise would be less likely to pique viewer interest, and beyond that, Rosie's name allows viewers to infer the gay focus not otherwise conveyed by the title.

The ship is a safe haven for queer families, who are regular subjects of discrimination and ignorance, and affords them a rare chance to cavort in unself-conscious abandon. It's an opportunity well worth celebrating. But in addition to looking suspiciously like one giant product placement for R Family Vacations, the persistent joy and frolic of a rainbow of family configurations doesn't automatically make for a compelling documentary.

The film debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival and is directed by Shari Cookson, who also directed Living Dolls:The Making of a Child Beauty Queen (2001), an award -winning television documentary about the subculture of beauty pageants for the 5-and-under set. That film garnered an Emmy for its editing, and it was also nominated in sound editing, cinematography and sound mixing categories. All Aboard! certainly benefits from Cookson's technical expertise, but it's hard not to suspect that the editing process in this case bordered on spin doctoring, because the end product bears none of the critical eye of Living Dolls.

Of course, the sordid subculture of child beauty pageants is an easy and deserving mark. Queer family life, on the other hand, is sacrosanct; painting that subculture in anything but glowing colors would be likely to garner far worse than industry condemnation. And this isn't an investigative report.

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