We were in WDW last October, and in Aulani last month, and pin trading was the same in both locations: they have a board with pins on it, and you drop a pin into a bucket and pick what you want off the board. The trick is figuring out where there are boards. In Aulani, there's just one board, and it's only active from 3 to 4. In WDW, each park has at least one board; the Magic Kingdom had several (but they changed where they were daily) while Epcot just had one at the visitor's center (if I recall correctly). I don't recall HS or They started at something like 9? Or 12? And ran all day.
Now for what you actually asked about, which is boards at resorts. We were staying at Contemporary, and they had one in the gift shop; we visited both GF and Poly, and they had ones, too, also in the gift shop. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say you'll find a pin trading board at the resorts that kind-of worked like this.
What was different in Aulani, that we didn't see in WDW last year, was people are far more willing to trade with you while standing around. Now maybe it was because all the pin traders are together from 3 to 4, but I would guess if you see other pin traders and ask them if they're comfortable, you'll find many people who are interested in "classic" pin trading.
As for traveling around, we could go anywhere we wanted (within the limits of WDW travel capabilities, of course). We rode the monorail to other resorts, take the Skyliner to Riviera, etcetera. So I don't think it'll be a problem for you to do that, and you should be able to suss out where there are boards so you don't set off on a fool's errand.
Hope this helps, and good luck!