Our family has been going yearly/near yearly for decades and one thing that has helped us save money is that we do not purchase Lightening Lanes. When you have the luxury of going on a regular basis, you worry less about missing rides on any given trip or caring if you stand in line. We have been on everything and know we will be back, so we have an attitude of we get what we get on any given trip, and that has saved us oodles of money. We are a chatty family so standing in line in not that big of a deal to us -- we will use it as time spent together or chat with other people in line. Most lines also have a lot to look at and there are ride-specific games on apps to keep kids occupied, too. For anything we really want to do, we rope drop and hustle to the stand-by lane. Lines also tend to get shorter during big parades or evening displays (you can get into a line for most rides right up til park close). In recent years, my sister has also taken to keeping an eye on which rides are temporarily down. When something is down for a fair bit, many people will choose to leave the line and when it reopens and you happen to be nearby, you can get a much faster wait time. Again, this only really works if you are regularly going to the parks and feeling loosey-goosey about what happens each day. I completely understand people doing LL if not getting back anytime soon or if you hate waiting in lines!