MONDAY IS COZUMEL...IF IT'S WEDNESDAY IT MUST BE ROATAN, HONDURAS

Now for pictures of Roatan, Honduras. I rented a car and drove the entire Island from one end to the other. Here are some pictures I took along the way.

Torquoise Bay

Parrot Tree Bay

And the rest are of a small fishing village I stumbled upon

YESTERDAY IN COZUMEL

pictures as promised...

at the Mayan Ruins in Cozumel, Mexico

one parrot and three chics...spa girls...

gemma (england), charmianne (south africa) and Tahlia (australia)

Charmainne and an iguana on the steps of a ruin

Another Mayan Ruin Iguana

and still another

More Mayan Ruin Pictures

the alter in the central plaza

the roundhouse alter

Charmainne, myself and Gemma

The Next Stop...The Tequilla Factory

First things first....MARGARITAS!

and AFTER margaritas the girls go for a ride

and then SHOTS of course...

Next Stop The Cozumel Coast

Charmainne, Gemma, Tahlia and myself

Cozumel Coast

Cozumel Beach Palapa

Charmainne and Gemma enjoy a hammock

Picture time at the palapa

Next Stop Paradise Beach Cozumel

Pier at Paradise Beach

Paradise Beach, Cozumel

Pool at Paradise Beach

Gemma at the pool at Paradise Beach

CATCHING UP

Sorry, once again it has taken so long to get back to answer question and to post.

QUESTION ASKED “are my figures before or after taxes?”

I just did the numbers and I am averaging just under $900 a week after taxes. My tax rate is close to 33%. I also have a new high for weekly tips of $607.

WORK HARD
Now I’d like to address some work stuff.

Embark

Once again I have altered my embark speech as I have only a matter of a couple of minutes with the guests. What I now say is “My name is Larry Pannell and I am the onboard acupuncturist. It is my job to do a couple of things, one to welcome you aboard and the other is to let you know how I can make not only your cruise but your life a little bit better. One is to relieve you from any stress that you might be feeling as acupuncture works extremely well relieving stress and the effects of stress. Second is to take away any pain that you might be experiencing. Anything for neck pain, shoulder back, knee, elbow it doesn’t matter as acupuncture works extremely well for all type of pain. Are you experiencing any type of pain? I can help you with that. I am offering free consultations tonight and it will only take 10-15 minutes of your time.” If asked how much a treatment is I state,  “if you decide to get a treatment I can offer you a 20% discount saving you $30. This works very well for me and I sign an average of 10 people for consults during embark.

Seminars

I found it an advantage to have your entire seminar “stuff” together. When I was in St. Thomas I went to Kmart, yes they have a Kmart, and bought a clear plastic box. It is about 12x8x12 and holds everything I use in my seminars. All I have to do is grab it and I know I have not forgotten anything.

In it I have a few single folders that holds my seminar sign in forms, a clipboard, pens, appointment cards, cables, an adapter for the projector, needling supplies, a couple bottles of herbs etc. The cables and adapter I am referring to is if you own a Mac you will need to bring your own cables and adapter in order to plug into the projector to give your Intro to Acupuncture Seminar. As far as the other seminars I don’t use a projector as I have limited access to it.

Also don’t be taken by surprise like I was. on my first sea day when the assistant manger came up to me and said “do you know you have a seminar?  My reply was “am I taking it or giving it?” as I had many training seminars when I first arrived. She said giving and then I asked when and what was the subject, “in 30 minutes and on Pain and Arthritis”. This same thing happened at the end of the week when I found out I had an Herb Seminar to give. It’s amusing now but when only given with 30 minutes notice on my second day it was not so funny then.

PLAY HARD

Today I am in Cozumel. I became friends with one of the taxi drivers from my last few trips here and he is taking some friends and myself on an island tour for $80. We are going sightseeing the entire island as well the Mayan ruins and will be gone for about 5 hours. I’m meeting him at the 7/11 where he will be waiting with his car and a cooler filled with ice in the trunk.

Last week I went with a friend to St. Johns when we were in St. Thomas. You have to take a taxi to the far side of St. Thomas and then a ferry to St. Johns. Once there we took a tour of the entire island for $25. It was incredible and very beautiful. I promise to post pictures of St. John, Cozumel and also another place that I visited on Roatan, Honduras last week. I am really behind working on my photos.

So that is it for now. I’ll post pictures when I can and I promise it will be soon

Here is a taste. Las Palmas in Roatan.

Questions From a Follower

From XXX (you know who you are)

"First, I'm wondering if up to this point, if it has been worth it for you, financially, professionally, personally, etc. Second, I'm wondering if any of the negative chatter I hear on the internet is worth worrying about (crazy managers, ungodly hours).

Any thoughts you have on your experience (you know, the stuff you can't necessarily post online) would be helpful in my decision as whether to commit to this or not."

At the beginning of this blog I stated I would post what I found good and bad. My friends will tell you I'm an honest guy plus I'm too damn old to care what the corporate world thinks and too big of a believer in karma.

I personally have found this a great experience. Of course every situation especially your work situation is what you make it. So let me answer your questions one at a time.

1. - "if it has been worth it for you financially"

- I've been very lucky, have worked hard, gotten my rap down and have done pretty good. I'm averaging about $1100 a week, sometime a bit more sometimes a bit less. Not bad when you think that your food, lodging and many shipboard activities are for free.

If you want to save a lot of money it can absolutely be done. Looking back at what I made on shore I was never able to have so much money left after all my bills were paid. Here I essentially live on my tips. Worst week they were $135 and best $492 averaging $334 per week.

2. - "if it has been worth it for you professionally"

- Again an easy yes. I've specialized for the past 15 years in pain and stress management, injury prevention/rehab, sports medicine and weight control. On board 90% of what I see is for pain, 5% for weight and the rest for misc. things such as vertigo, tremors, seasickness etc. I have really enjoyed each patient and what they bring me.

If you are not a public speak you will be. I give 4 seminars a week. Two on pain/arthritis, one on herbs and one of intro to acupuncture. I have taught on and off for years so this wasn't really hard for me but still when it is not your format it is a bit different. Plus the hardest thing for me was to stop educating and bring it to a "you want acupuncture" format.

3. - "if it has been worth it for you personally"

- Absolutely! First I have met some wonderful people and made what I will be some life long friends along the way. The travel has been great and I can't wait for my next ship and the travel to new ports of call.

Right now I am sitting in the local crew hangout The Honky Tonk Bar on a beach in St. Maarten with friends. Everyone is eating, drinking and catching up on emails etc. Shipboard internet is expensive so this is what we do. Yesterday it was hanging out at my favorite place in St. Thomas on top of a mountain overlooking the bay at Paridise Point until sunset having a cocktail, something to eat and of course again doing the internet thing.

Also St. Thomas is a US port in the Virgin Islands so you can make cell phone calls without roaming charges so I usually call family and friends. On that subject I closed my verizon acct as I was not going to pay $100 a month to be able to use it a couple hours while in home port and a few hours in St. Thomas every two weeks. I went to Walmart and bought a pay as you go phone with 400 minutes for $40. Then when I need it I buy another 400 minutes for $25 every couple months and it saves a lot of money. You can also buy ship calling card for $10 and get a little over an hour calling time. I have only done this once for something that could not wait and still have close to an hour left.

A couple nights ago it was a toga party the ship crew office put on. I seldom go to these things but I had the next day off and was called by friends at midnight to join them. I went but no toga for me as I was going to toga parties before most of them were born. I left and the party was still in full swing at 3am.

So there is a lot to do on board and on shore.

4. - "I'm wondering if any of the negative chatter I hear on the internet is worth worrying about (crazy managers, ungodly hours)."
Again it all depends on what YOU make it. Yes the hours are long especially on sea days. I start at 7:45 and end at 8pm except for Fridays which is port cleaning so around 9-10pm. I was told by my manager as long as I do my 52 hours she doesn't care what hours I work. I usually do a little more then that but it is no big deal.

I make sure I am working when I believe most of the guests are onboard so I can maximize my earnings and keep corporate happy. Some are here to travel, which I enjoy also but I am here to work and make money. Plus I take time off in any port I want and have my favorites. I usually do not go to shore in Nassau or Belize for the most part. But I always spend a lot of time off in Roatan, Costa Maya, Cozumel, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. My numbers are good which makes corporate happy and I have a good income.

I also made it very clear I want off at 8pm and to do this I do not take dinners. I eat afterwards, get home and showers and watch a movie or tv to wind down. I'm usually asleep by 11pm.

Also I saw the blog most see about how many hours you have to work, how mean the managers are, that you have to sell yourself and herbs. I wrote there this same thing "welcome to the real world". 

Now this of course only goes for us acupuncturists. When you have your private practice you do the same thing. You work very long hours; you sell yourself, talk to groups in your area, network with other healthcare professionals and sell herbs. That is if you want to be successful. I ran a successful practice for 15 years before this and for years before that I was a professional photojournalist and found the same thing. I don't care what field you are in you can work long hours, have to sell yourself or your product or both and may or may not have a "mean" manager.

GRIPS

Now for my only grips. There was a screw up on my paperwork for my paycheck and it took me 11.5 weeks to get paid. There is also this flack about lab coats on my ship, which I understand has gone all the way to corporate. I won’t mention a name but I think I know where this all started form and if I was sure I'd post it. Anyhow someone somewhere decided that if you are not a "md" you can not wear a lab coat out of the spa area as someone might think your are a doctor. And if they think that the ship can be sued and is liable. What a bunch of crap.

Personally I would much rather call myself an acupuncturist then a doctor (md) and when asked I tell them that acupuncturists are physicians but we are not md's. This is absolutely true as the dictionary definition of a physician is "a person licensed by the state to practice medicine." It does not say western medicine, not eastern medicine...medicine and we are licensed by the state to practice medicine. I'm sure you just like most of us have run into an md or two that frowns on us and believes acupuncture is nothing more then voodoo and is also an egotist about his "doctor" status. So be it...anyone can be a doctor, there are only a few of us in the world that are acupuncturists. Besides you get a lot more questions from people wanting to know about tcm then you would be saying "I'm a doctor".

Pictures will follow in another post....enjoy and I hope you had your questions answered

Living the Good Life...

Couple things I forgot to mention.

Buy about 5 small to medium size locks. In my case these will be for two desk drawers, wardrobe and two drawers under my bed. You need two minimum, that is all I have but at times wish I had a couple more. I do know people that have things taken from their rooms. I lock all valuable up whenever I leave my room. Do not bring anything like an iron, teapot, cup warmer etc. as the will be confiscated for fire safety reason.

The Dream off Belize Earlier This Week

Local Bar in Belize City

View from my favorite place for fish tacos, $2 each, in Costa Maya

Spa Girls Natalie and Sophie stopped by last night 

to see if I wanted to go to the show

WORK HARD

Now lets talk paperwork. I’m a fairly organized guy, somewhat metal in TCM. The night before embark I post my schedule on the spa computer, my Macbook and organize my weekly work sheets for each day. Theses are appointment sheets with times available to book people throughout the week, essentially my schedule. I use a pencil to write down the name and cabin number of the patient in case of changes and I use a yellow highlighter to mark times that are not available such as lunch, dinner, time off, seminars etc.

During embark and throughout the week I use this to book consults and appointments. As soon as I do during embark I tell the receptionist on duty to enter it into the computer so it is not double booked and the rest of the week I enter the information myself.

This gives you three points of reference, the spa computer, which I constantly check throughout the day for added appointments. The spa computer is the master schedule and my Macbook is the slave and I post appointments on it according to the spa computer.

My daily/weekly worksheets are used to book appointments during my seminars, embark etc. Always transfer appointments to the spa computer making sure you were not booked. When I give seminars and book appointments after them on my daily sheets I tell the patient that I will check the spa computer and let them know if the time had been booked during the seminar and will call if there is a conflict to reschedule. This happens very seldom but it does happen. You must keep in mind that the “master schedule” is the spa computer, not your personal computer or worksheets. I’ve found this system to be very easy to use and avoid any scheduling mix-ups.

During the seminar I also have a sign up sheet for those that attend. I have them fill this out while I am waiting to give the seminar. This enables you to see who is at the seminar and why. This way you can gear your talk to address their specific needs. I usually have a very high percentage of those at the seminar sign up for consults or appointments.

The problem I am having is getting people to the seminars. This has just happened over the last few weeks and we think it is due to the “spring break” demographic. That and the weather has been exceptional so everyone is outdoors enjoying the sun. We have done cabin drops, display boards talking about seminars, the morning show…everything but to no avail. They are just not showing up.

What gas carried me through is I have had very high embark numbers. That is until this week. This has been the slowest embark since I joined the ship. Very few people on the spa tour and very few of them interested in signing up for free consultations or the 20% discount we began to offer for embark night only.

Usually how I now start my embark speech as I have few little time with the guest is to say “My name is Larry and I am the onboard acupuncturist. It is my job not only to welcome you aboard but to also tell you how I can make your cruise and your life a little nicer. One way is to relieve any stress that you may be going through. They other it to relieve you from any pain you are experiencing. Acupuncture is good for any type of pain form back, neck, shoulders, knee, elbow etc. Are you experiencing any pain?” Usually they will say yes and then I say “there is no reason to answer yes etc.”. Then follow up from there telling the person how you can help them. I also always have my testimonial book with me and show them what others with similar conditions have had to say and how much I have helped them. This is very important and has helped my book a number of appointments. Remember you only have minutes to get the point across that you can help them.

That is it for now. Let me know if you have any other questions etc.

PLAY HARD

Right now I am sitting in the local crew bar/hangout in St. Maarten and decided it was time to catch up a little with my blog.

Boat ride to St. John

Yesterday while in St. Thomas I decided to take a boat to St. John. Once in St. John it was off to Trunk Beach, which has been rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world. If it wasn’t for all the people I would have agreed.  It certainly was beautiful and the water was an amazing color and was unbelievably clear.

So without any further talk I'll let it speak for itself….

From the taxi on the way to Trunk Bay below

Trunk Beach

Other End of Trunk Beach

The Beautiful Waters of Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay

AND WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT...

...Days Like Today

It's long hours and a lot of hard work but when you have time off to relax and party with friends it makes it all worth it.

Today at Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras

Chairlift to Mahogany Bay Beach

Mahogany Bay

Mahogany Bay

Mahogany Bay

Mahogany Bay

Mahogany Bay Touristville

And then there is partying with the Spa Girls...

Eanne and Sara

Sara and Katie

Katie and Sara

Me and the Spa Gang

Spa Gang Gets Wet

Spa Girls...and Raymond

Eanna and Katie

Peta Gets Her Rock On

We Will We Will...

Rock You!!!!!!!!

Sophia Rocks Too...