Goo convince your friends at least to have enough on them to buy an express pass. Going through one line up should be enough to change their minds.
Another thing you could look into, is that apparently if you are in the park when it closes for the day and have HHN tickets, you can stay in the park in a que. They open some of the houses 45 minutes early for the people in the que from what I read. They have done this in previous years but I haven't done this so can't speak to whether this an actual fact.