The 8 most exciting amusement park additions of 2013

[By Jason Cochran]
Sorry, springtime! Our long, hideous winter stole most of your mojo. Summer is quickly approaching, but with spring buds arriving so late, many Americans haven't been prompted to make summer plans yet.
Not at the nation's theme parks. They've been beavering away all winter to make sure their big new attractions are ready for their ribbon-cuttings. Pre-season is also the time to snag the best deals on season passes, since many parks hike admission prices once school lets out. 
Seasonal parks, including the venerable Kennywood in Pittsburgh, halt admission in mid-September, so buying passes early also enables more playtime.
Six Flags' many national properties already have their season pass Web pages up and selling, and right now, they're offering fat discounts for those who buy early. For example, Six Flags over Georgia, outside Atlanta, is selling passes for $57 for adults, and for $65, it will throw in unlimited admission to any Six Flags theme park across the country. Considering a single-day adult ticket costs $57 if you walk up to the front gate, for anyone who intends to visit a Six Flags more than once, the savings can be locked in today. 
Just about every park is adding something designed to entice the domestic vacationer, but here are eight highlights:
SeaWorld OrlandoOrlando, FLSeaWorld.comMore than 250 penguins (you got your rockhopper, you got your gentoo…) share the newly built Antarctica — Empire of the Penguin pavilion that takes up the largest footprint in the park's history. The penguin habitat is two degrees below freezing, and that provides the chills, but the thrills come with the attached ride, which breaks ground by using a trackless computer-navigated system that allows boarding families to select both the intensity and the path of their ride.

Cedar PointSandusky, OHcedarpoint.comOnce again, coaster powerhouse Cedar Point goes for broke with its new GateKeeper wing coaster, which is promoted as smashing five world records, including longest track, longest drop, and tallest inversion. It threads itself right through the front gate.

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Mt. Olympus Water & Theme ParkWisconsin Dells, WImtolympuspark.comThe wooden beast known as Hades was already a take-no-prisoners coaster that both rocketed high in the air and ducked underground. Now it has gone and added some upside-down moments — yes, on a wooden coaster — to up the ante nearly past endurance (and physics).
Universal StudiosOrlando, FLuniversalorlando.comLike a supersized version of its now-legendary Spider-Man ride, the Transformers ride-through simulator debuts on the East Coast. Think 45-foot-tall screens, state-of-the-art 3-D visuals, and a sound system that can blow your hair back. But that's nothing compared to the next big area now under construction: Universal won't confirm it, but it's an open secret that Harry Potter is eventually expanding into the area where the Jaws ride once stood.
Six Flags over GeorgiaAustell, GAsixflags.com/overgeorgiaThe park adds SkyScreamer, a 242-foot-tall swing carousel.  The same ride has gone into other Six Flags properties lately, but the addition is particularly nostalgic here. Locals grieved in 2005 when the park removed The Great Gasp, the iconic parachute tower that signalled the property for miles around, but with the new tower, Atlanta's amusement skyline is restored.
The Legoland HotelCarlsbad, CALegolandHotel.comLegoland does theme parks for little kids like few other brands can, and it extends is meticulous brick-themed decor to a custom-built 250-room property. It's a bit more expensive than the surrounding motels, but the point of difference is it immerses each room in ebulliently playful themes such as pirates and knights, and the grounds are studded with stupefyingly detailed Lego constructions. It's like sleeping inside a toy chest.
Six Flags Fiesta TexasSan Antonio, TXSixFlags.com/FiestaTexasThe old Rattler wooden coaster closed after 20 years to be refitted with steel rails as the reinvented Iron Rattler. The metal construction enables the reborn coaster to perform some gnarly new barrel rolls and steepen the first drop to a virtually vertical 81 degrees.

Silver Dollar City
Branson, MO
SilverDollarCity.com
Probably the hottest new roller coaster in the country, the $10 million Outlaw Run is billed as featuring the world's only double barrel roll on a wood coaster and as being the only wood coaster to twist upside down three times. It is also the second-fastest wooden coaster, hitting a splintering 68 mph. The proprietors assure us that it's all perfectly safe.