OK... New guy alert

My wife and I are doing MK AH on April 11th. This will be our first time to WDW (yeah, I know...

) We are spending a full day in Epcot on Monday of that week and then hitting MK early on Wednesday morning (breakfast reservation), and hoping to get on Seven Dwarves, Big Thunder and maybe a couple of others and then head to AK for the rest of the day and evening.
MK AH will be our only event on the 11th, so what time should we show up at the park? 6pm? I have FP for Seven Dwarves, Big Thunder and Peter Pan booked for before the event, starting at 6:50 - 7:50 for the first window.
For the lanyards/wrist band, our tickets are linked to my
MDE account. Can we pick up the lanyard/wrist band when we pick up our regular park hopper passes at guest services at Disney Springs on Sunday or do we have to wait for the day of the AH event?
Finally

one non-AH question. We are staying off property at a time share. Is it worth getting magic bands? I don't really care about the money, but if we use the lanyards that we use on cruises to hold the pass card, would that be good enough?
Thanks!
...ron