We took a 4 night Bahamas cruise visiting Freeport and then Nassau, with one sea day. Our party consisted of my wife and I, three kids (ages 6,8,11) and my mother-in law. We had two outside cabins on R deck.
Embarkation was straightforward - since two of our children are foreign adoptees we used the non-US citizen line which was much shorter. Carnival made a big deal about letting us (everyone, not just us) on "early" and even provided us a letter saying they were pleased to do this. I got the impression that this happens fairly frequently so I recommend arriving at the terminal by 1200.
We arrived onboard but were not allowed to occupy our cabins until 1:30, however, we were allowed to leave our carryon bags in them and did so. We then went to the buffet to eat, which was very nice. We then went to the pool area and relaxed. It was nice but there was a band playing very loudly - it was hard to have a conversation in this area.