{"id":187704,"date":"2026-05-09T01:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T01:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/187704\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T01:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T01:31:06","slug":"its-the-beginning-of-life-dorney-park-kicks-off-142nd-season-in-allentown-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/187704\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It\u2019s the beginning of life&#8217;: Dorney Park kicks off 142nd season in Allentown | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ALLENTOWN, Pa. &#8211; Dorney Park is now in its 142nd season. The park has been a staple around here for generations.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a sweet sign of spring when the rides start swinging and swaying, and the crowds return to Dorney Park. The park opened for business Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s like the beginning of summer. It&#8217;s the beginning of life,&#8221; said Thunderhawk rider and Dorney Park season ticket-holder Cliff Herring.<\/p>\n<p>Iby Shaw of Schnecksville has buckled up for more than 2000 rides on the Iron Menace, which is now in its third season. Shaw thinks Opening Day is a special event.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At first it started with me going for a 1,000 (rides) on Iron Menace. But then I wanted to go for 2,000 on Iron Menace just to run it back,&#8221; Shaw said.<\/p>\n<p>After the rides, there are plenty of games of skill to keep your hands full. Charlotte Fazio of Bernardsville, New Jersey, filled hers with a giant emoji.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty heavy honestly,&#8221; laughed Fazio. &#8220;But it&#8217;s really comfortable. I just hope it doesn&#8217;t rain, I don&#8217;t want it to be wet on the bus.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For the 6th consecutive year, a little rain fell down on Dorney&#8217;s first day. Is it good luck? Like rain on a wedding day?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it is,&#8221; said Ryan Eldredge of Dorney Park Public Relations. &#8220;It&#8217;s always Sunny in Philadelphia. It&#8217;s always gray in Allentown (on opening day). It&#8217;s just an indication that the season is starting, it&#8217;s gonna be a good year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dorney Park is open 10:30am-7pm Friday through Sunday up until Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. &#8211; Dorney Park is now in its 142nd season. The park has been a staple around&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":["post-187704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}