On a recent Friday at Universal, a breeze rustled the palm trees as several hundred people waited in the snaking queue for a tram tour of the park’s back lot. It was the quintessential theme park scene: tourists chattering noisily, a chubby man digging through his fanny pack, boys using the railings as a swing set.

“How much longer?” one whined to his mother.

People who recoil at crowds but enjoy theme parks used to come in the off season. But relentless advertising, new attractions and an improving economy now keep attendance high year-round. Universal’s three theme parks in the United States attracted roughly 20 million people last year, a 19 percent increase from 2010, analysts estimate. The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World recently recorded the busiest day in its 41-year history.

“If Universal didn’t offer a V.I.P. option, I wouldn’t go,” said Mark Lieber, chief executive of Rethink Entertainment and Media. “I just don’t have the time to wait in a line, and I want a certain level of service.” (He did feel a twinge of guilt, however: “They should give deserving students access to the V.I.P. tours once a week. That way it’s not just for the privileged.”)

The amusement park industry urgently wants to expand profits without introducing costly new rides every summer. NBCUniversal, which recorded $953 million in profit from its parks in 2012, has no major new attractions planned for Universal Studios Hollywood until next year; the V.I.P. Experience, in the meantime, is a relatively low-cost way to generate revenue and send a message of bigger and better into the marketplace.

Universal upgraded its V.I.P. Experience — and raised the price by 50 percent — after realizing that the old one, which did not include lunch, the lounge or other perks, “was selling out more and more frequently,” Ms. Wiley said.

How is the new offering going over? She declined to disclose sales data, but said that “we’re seeing double-digit percent increases in terms of volume.”