Cleaning the Kingdom

By: Lynn Barron, Ken Pellman

Narrated by: Ken Pellman

Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

What is it like to be the eyes and ears of the institution known as "The Happiest Place on Earth"? How does it really feel to work day in and day out leading part of the world-famous Disneyland Custodial Team? Just how do they keep such a busy place so clean?

Find the answers to these questions and more as secrets are revealed in this unauthorized, honest, and affectionate memoir from insiders who struggled to keep guests happy, tame wild new cast members, and keep the original Disneyland clean through a time of tremendous change, growth, and controversy for the resort. You'll discover that cleaning up is just a part of the job as you experience heartwarming triumphs, heartbreaking tragedies, and hearty laughs along with the people who lived them.

©2015 Ken Pellman and Lynn Barron (P)2017 Ken Pellman and Lynn Barron

Great content, not so great recording

I really enjoyed the book and listen to Ken and Lynn's podcast "The Sweep Spot". this book expands on their experience in the park in a way that I never got in their podcast. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in theme parks, especially Disney. The only reason I am not giving this book all five stars is the recording quality. Much of the time Ken's microphone is cranked way too high and sounds pretty terrible. Also around chapter 14 there are some bizarre sounds from what I can only guess is a computer. If they used a decent audio recorder and microphone at the right level it would make a world of difference. Then we could really get the full experience in of Ken's silky smooth radio voice, I am not kidding it's pretty amazing.

Terrible narration

I want to lead by saying I love listening to audiobooks. I have over 100- all from Audible. While the content of this story is potentially interesting, this is the worst narration of an audiobook I've ever heard. Simply put, it is not up to Audible's quality standard.

The narration has a background gain hum- as if it was recorded quietly and then the master volume turned up to be in normal listening range. This hum is annoying and distracting but it also makes the narrator's breaths and swallows painfully obvious.

The reader also seems to be reading this book for the first time. Occasionally stumbling over words and off sentence cadence. The reader coughs a few times and clears his throat. These elements make the book hard to listen to on a long car trip where the blemishes feel obvious.

This book came highly recommended, but due to poor recording quality, I must recommend against this audiobook.

Poor Quality

While the content is interesting enough, this has the lowest production quality I have ever heard from Audible. The recording is tinny and hard to listen to. The narration is clumsy and amateurish, as though the reader hadn't seen the text before. Which is odd, since it's read by one of the authors. All in all, it was very hard to listen to.

Great Listen, Poorly Narrated

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this "book" even though much of the information was information I already knew. Unfortunately, the narration is horrible. The clarity of the recording is one issue, and this is compounded by a very poor narration. The narrator sounds as if he were reading the book for the first time, which, given he is the author is confusing. There are needless breaks in sentences, mis-pronounced sentences, and stumbles over the words. Additionally there seems to be no consistency between pausing between sentences, heading, chapters, etc. In some places they run together, and in others there are gaps that just do not make sense in the context of what is being said. This is truly a case where a professional narrator would have made a good book great, and a poor narrator, made what appeared to be a good book, poor.

great book

just fyi after chapter 13 there are occasional sound effects not related to the book. oops

Fix the audio

The story was interesting, but I could not get past the incredibly awful presentation of both the sound production and the somewhat stilted and clumsy narration. C'mon Audible, quality control!

Book is pretty good narration is awful

I struggled to finish this book. The narration is not very good, there is so many stutters and odd pause and breaks in the reading. The story was good so I think I might just buy the book and give it another try.

Great Story with some catches

The story is great and very interesting. Downside are the regular audio artifacts.. some places the audio stutters badly. Other areas there are a lot of sounds from the Windows OS and some other sounds creeping like someone talking or music then immediately cuts out. Happens throughout the reading. Distracting but doesn’t take away from the story too much. Still listenable.

Touching and informative

A great look into the lives of castmembers. Audio quality was to be desired in places. The book starts out to be very mechanical in explaining the day to day. however as you get further into the book they begin to tell wonderful stores that are funny and can be touching at certain places. It definitely gives you a perspective on what castmembers have to deal with at Disneyland and makes you far more appreciative as a fan of what they do.

Great book from some great authors

What did you love best about Cleaning the Kingdom?

I already owned this book in physical form but couldn't pass up hearing it read from author Ken Pellman. If you have never heard the podcast he does with Lynn he has a voice made for audio and this audiobook does not disappoint.

What other book might you compare Cleaning the Kingdom to and why?

Other backstage Disney books, except there are none of other like this one!

Which character – as performed by Ken Pellman – was your favorite?

Ken Pellman does a great Ken Pellman, almost believed it was him.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There can be some extreme "disgust" to some of the stories, but that is to be expected from custodial, you know you want to hear it.

Any additional comments?

The book itself is great and provides some amazing details of custodial at Disneyland and lots of interesting stories. Don't pass this one up.