Hi - I'll try to answer some of your questions.
The dining rotation depends on many things. First, there are two seatings, Main at 6pm and Late at 8:30pm. There are 3 different rotations for each seating time. The rotation is assigned by
DCL and is done mostly by the 'situation' or category of dinner guests in your party. The only one I know of for sure is the one I fall into, which is adults travelling without children and that is LAP on the Magic and TAP on the Wonder. Some people believe it is better to have a certain rotation especially on the Magic. I believe that DCL does a fine job on their own. Even if you request a certain rotation, it isn't guranteed that you will get it.
Pin Trading is something that was started in the Theme Parks a couple years ago and has naturally extended itself to the ships. There are thousands of Disney pins out there. The 'object' is to buy some pins and then trade them with other pin traders or with Disney Cast Members. Other traders have no obligation to trade with you, it's optional. Cast Members that display lanyards of pins do trade with you. My DW has collected a few pins over the years but she won't trade any of them. She only buys one if she likes it and won't give it up.
The Trading Cards are from the DCL ships. You can receive the cards while on a cruise from Cast Members. Officers usually try to carry them when they are out and about to give out by request. Other cast members have them to hand out when they are in front of certain areas, such as the Walt Disney Theatre. There are little icons on the daily navigators that indicate where trading cards will be every day. If you don't have children with you, you have to ask for the cards, it seems they assume only the kids will want them. Trading woth other card collectors is again optional and cast members do not trade them like they do with pins.
The daily activities are printed on the Navigators that are handed out daily. You get the first one when you check in, after that, your cabin steward will leave one in your room every day. It lists all of the activities in chronological order with their locations. You can read some from recent cruises at Barb and Tony's (Inkkognito) site or at Dave from Marietta's site.
Inkkognito -
www.castawayclub.com
Dave -
www.dcltribute.com
It is moderately difficult to be picked to play in one of the family games, they choose the contestants by 'enthusiasm level' a lot of the time. If you're on the Magic and want to play in the 'Who wants to be a Mouseketeer' game, it is chosen by computer in the seat and row that people are sitting in.
hope that helps
