If you are wanting to take leave and are allowed to do so, do it now before you report to your permanent duty station. Especially if you are married and have a family and are relocating. This will give you time to find a place and settle in first.

If your are single and wanting to just dive right in, by all means report in but beware, once you report in, whether you are allowed to take leave or not now depends on your new command. They may be in the middle of a training cycle for an upcoming deployment and you, the new guy, has to get up to speed and will not be allowed to take leave. Or they may have just come off deployment and everyone is on leave too.

Between school and reporting, no problem but after you report, you are now at the service of your new command as to whether they let you take leave or not.

You cannot go wrong reporting in Dress Uniform. Some commands and situations may allow you to report differently. Call your new command before you report and ask.

if you check in to your command first they may not LET you take any leave.

if you have leave built up, and have a RNLTD a few weeks down the road, take it en route. the officially authorized travel days will not count against you, but any more time will be charged leave.

say you are in A school in Pensacola, and have orders to Norfolk. That's either 2 or 3 days travel( its been a few years for us). but if you take a week off to visit family, you will only be charged the 4 or 5 days leave.

Cracker jacks are ALWAYS acceptable. In fact you should err on the side of caution and present your best dressed self to the OOD when first checking in.

its better to take leave before reporting.