Mike
Contributor
Normally I would suggest a new ocean diver hire a private DM for the first couple of tanks, one trip - but there may be some professionals or very experienced divers in the group who will volunteer to buddy with you the first day. One or the other...
If they stick to what they advertise, he won't be in a group with many if any experienced divers, but a boat group with similar level of experience as himself.
If you're a solo diver I'd advise to post in the invasion area about hooking up with somebody when you get there and do a shore dive together. Just do a nice easy weight check out dive close to the shore and that will put you a little bit ahead of the curve before the boat dives start on the first day and everybody is excited and hopped up on adrenalin on that first day of diving.
Also if you get left behind by your buddy on the descent because of your ears, you need to find another buddy.
Think about making friends with the dive master who will be leading your group in the time it takes for the boat to leave and get to the dive site. Let him know your experience level and let him know about your ears. Hopefully he will be watching you on the descent and hold everybody up until you all re-group at the bottom. However, it does happen differently, there are mucho macho dive masters (I know, nobody wants to admit they exist) who simply will drop to the bottom and watch you struggle to descend, give you a certain amount of time to get your act together and if you don't will simply give you the thumbs up (go back to the boat) and turn and lead the rest of the group. Hopefully you don't run into that and you run into the more typical dive master and he simply says, "No worries, take your time and we will all wait and proceed together."
There are lots of divers with ear problems and if you end up on the newbie boat, you certainly won't be the only one.