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Celebrity Silhouette

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Celebrity Silhouette 17/6 Mini review - The good, the bad and the overcrowded.

By debsjc , June 25, 2023 in Celebrity Cruises

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" Thank you for sharing your review with everyone at Cruise Critic. Please consider submitting it to the site for publication as well: Click: Write a Review . "

debsjc was awarded the badge 'Great Review'

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CruiserByHeart

Thanks  @debsjc , for your candid review 🙏  

We're going on the Silhouette for the westbound transatlantic and wondering how service will be. While it's still early in the season, your report does give us a glimpse of what we might expect.

We've cruised on Celebrity Cruises many times and hope you enjoyed your experience enough to give them a another chance 😉

Thank you for posting your well written review. How did you think it compared to the other lines you've been on such as Princess? Would you book Celebrity again?

38 minutes ago, debsjc said: We just returned back from the Silhouette on Saturday, on a 7 days Spain & Portugal cruise from Southampton. This was our first trip with Celebrity, and before this our current 'favourite' line was Princess (or Oceania when we want to splash out!)  Our cabin was a concierge class balcony, aft on deck 11.   I am going to give some hopefully constructive criticism, but I would like to say we didn't let any of the issues spoil our vacation, and we still had a good time made the most of the cruise.    Good Points   1- The appearance of the ship throughout was stunning, stylish decor and spotlessly clean   2- We were very happy with our balcony stateroom, and our stateroom attendant was great. The isn't a lot we ask for, but we were very happy to have ice refreshed twice a day.    3- Oceanview cafe - We ate here for every breakfast and lunch, and 5 x dinners. The food is excellent, mostly a good choice, and the hot items are actually kept hot which we appreciated. Enjoyed the themed evenings, such as Italian and Spanish... but would just have a liked a little more choice for evening meal, maybe a made to order stir fry station. Having the ice cream station was great.    4- Embarkation and Disembarkation were very smooth and well organised.   5- The majority of the crew were very friendly.    6- Entertainment - Great production shows, and a lot of good singers and musicians playing around the ship.    Disappointing    1 - The bar service was awful in some areas. Trying to get a drink by the pool was the worst, we sat by the pool for 3 hours without seeing 1 waiter, and there was only 1 barman on duty at the pool bar with long lines. In the evening, if you could get a table in a bar the service was fine, but going up to a bar usually involved a long wait again. It seemed like with so many people on packages, they did not have the crew to cope with the demand. We are not big drinkers, about 3 drinks a day, but it was such a battle it became annoying. I did try and address this on board, as I was contacted after I wrote on the comments form, however nothing actually changed.   2- Evening seating in the bars - there is just no where near enough seats, several times we walked from bar to bar just trying to find a table with no luck at all. Every bar had people standing around looking for seats. There was space for a lot more tables, not sure why this wasn't been utilised, if we could see there was a problem the crew should be able to. We spoke to several people who were going back to their cabins as they gave up trying to find a spot.    3- Dining room - Long lines to get in, even if you had a reservation on anytime dining. Once inside the service was slow, with no checkbacks from the wait staff. The first night the food was cold, which did improve the second night. But due to slow service we gave up and ate in the cafe. If you don't mind spending 2 hours over a mediocre meal then you will be fine.    4- Classic drinks package - If you say the package includes 'bottled water' then it needs to do that. A brand of still mineral water, and a brand of sparkling mineral water (any brand) Filtered metallic tasting water is not acceptable.    5- WiFi - Basic package just about works on a phone to load emails, but if you want to use a laptop it's terrible.   I'm sure I have probably upset some Celebrity regulars, but I can only report it as we found it. This sailing was full, and the facilities seemed stretched.  For me Celebrity is at a medium-high price point, and this should be reflected in the service. I felt the crew spent a lot of time on board telling everyone how amazing Celebrity are, but weren't actually prepared to make any changes to achieve that level  

I can’t see why you would upset Celebrity regulars, you have posted an honest first hand review and I for one appreciate that. Than’ you.

hampshirelad

I think your post has only confirmed what many Celebrity cruisers have seen especially since the pandemic. When you have been with them for many years you notice it. I am fed up with hearing the pandemic being seen as a reason. There has been plenty of time to come back from that. The MDR and Cafe are regular gripes. The question is where do you go - they are all at it. Went with Seabourn March 21 that was not great. The smart money seems to be on Aqua. now that the price of suites has gone through the roof. The Blu restaurant is good and as for bars look at the Sky Lounge. This used to be buzzing in the days before packages took over and we got free drinks 5-00 to 7-00pm. We always tipped the barman so we got an extra one in on the deadline.

1 hour ago, CruiserByHeart said: Thanks  @debsjc , for your candid review 🙏   We're going on the Silhouette for the westbound transatlantic and wondering how service will be. While it's still early in the season, your report does give us a glimpse of what we might expect. We've cruised on Celebrity Cruises many times and hope you enjoyed your experience enough to give them a another chance 😉

Thank you, hopefully your transatlantic may be quieter, or Celebrity may have ironed out some of these issues by then. I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I would give them another chance, price and itinerary dependent. 

1 hour ago, mahdnc said: Thank you for posting your well written review. How did you think it compared to the other lines you've been on such as Princess? Would you book Celebrity again?

Thank you. I think Princess is a little better overall, and also a slightly lower price. With Princess we did not have any issues finding seating in the evening, or getting bar service. Their Medallion net internet is excellent, and complimentary room service is very good. I also like the option of paying for The Sanctuary for the occasional luxurious sea day. I would say however their MDR isn't great either, and their hot food in the buffet was not as good as Celebrity's. 

I would book Celebrity again, but it would be dependent on the price and the routing, and recent reviews at that time   

24 minutes ago, hampshirelad said: I think your post has only confirmed what many Celebrity cruisers have seen especially since the pandemic. When you have been with them for many years you notice it. I am fed up with hearing the pandemic being seen as a reason. There has been plenty of time to come back from that. The MDR and Cafe are regular gripes. The question is where do you go - they are all at it. Went with Seabourn March 21 that was not great. The smart money seems to be on Aqua. now that the price of suites has gone through the roof. The Blu restaurant is good and as for bars look at the Sky Lounge. This used to be buzzing in the days before packages took over and we got free drinks 5-00 to 7-00pm. We always tipped the barman so we got an extra one in on the deadline.

I am really surprised you didn't have a great experience on Seabourn, I would have expected them to be excellent, but we haven't cruised with them for years. Have you tried Oceania? I agree it's getting harder to get great service on any line. We did look at Aqua, but the Persian garden on the Silhouette is small, and we weren't over keen on the Blu menus. The Sky Lounge is lovely, but often even that was totally full, and it was used for a pub quiz every evening, so not very relaxing. 

This drink package thing is tricky. In years past before the advent of the drink packages,

there was a constant presence of drink servers inquiring if you wanted something to drink at many locations around the ship. Bar service was prompt and polite with very little if any wait time.

Now many folks have opted to pay in advance for their drinks ( and gratuities) and all of the sudden it becomes a tedious process to get a drink. Just off the equinox a few weeks ago , I personally experienced this. I sincerely hope that Celebrity does not underestimate the intelligence of the paying customers. Money is mobile.

I’m disappointed that there is no stir fry station in he OVC.  It was also missing on Equinox in February.  A previous post said it was back!  We don’t sail until April so hopefully it will make another comeback! Thanks for the review.

Friends of ours were on this Cruise. They were in Blu and if the Restaurant was busy they waited at the Ensemble bar for a slot. Perhaps that did not help the seat issue..

They said the shows were some of the best for some time.

Drinks package - They said with the basic package it was best just to pay a few dollars extra for an upgraded drink , if you wanted a specific spirit etc., rather than mega bucks for two of you to upgrade to premium - not sure how long that will last before Celebrity cotton onto it.

Looking at my last comment on Seabourn - I felt that the Colonnade was not a million miles away from Ocean View. At breakfast if you ordered an Omelette you had to go to the buffet for fruit pastries etc. The omelette came when it was cooked no matter where you were with the rest of your breakfast. If you wanted a wine at lunch /dinner that the server did not have in his hand , then you really had to stand your ground. The main dining room was pretty chaotic and you always had to refuse the table by where the cutlery and stuff was organised. If you went to Earth wind and Fire in the deck for a meal it was invariably cold.

How have others got on with Oceania - the blub seems to over promise. Are drinks and excursions mega priced to make up for cabin headline prices. I believe most Oceania mainly run  the old "R" ships with small cabins. Azamara has some of these ships and the bulk of the cabins are politely described as cramped. Smaller than a standard Celebrity cabin.

Anyone got feedback on MSC Yacht Club. I can plug my ears to  block out hearing the same thing in 20 different languages

Should have added that over the years Celebrity have added more cabins and refurbished and expanded their  retail on  their ships at the expense of Customer space . The M class are a prime example. On sunshine sea days you will be lucky to get a sun lounger on the deck and the Seaview Cafe between 12 and 2 is a war zone

1 hour ago, lola2013 said: I’m disappointed that there is no stir fry station in he OVC.  It was also missing on Equinox in February.  A previous post said it was back!  We don’t sail until April so hopefully it will make another comeback! Thanks for the review.

They did have a cook to order pasta station in the OVC which was good. I don't think there was a stir fry station though. Unless maybe they would have done it, although it said pasta on the sign above. 

34 minutes ago, hampshirelad said: Should have added that over the years Celebrity have added more cabins and refurbished and expanded their  retail on  their ships at the expense of Customer space . The M class are a prime example. On sunshine sea days you will be lucky to get a sun lounger on the deck and the Seaview Cafe between 12 and 2 is a war zone

You are right about the standard balcony cabins being small on Oceania, but everything else was so good last time we sailed with them, we didn't mind. (it may have changed now) 

Your experience on Seabourn definitely sounds disappointing.  The production shows were very good on the Silhouette, some of the best we have seen. Also, I can confirm you just pay the extra if you order a cocktail not on the classic package, for example $1 more for a mudslide.  We only had 2 sea days, on the rainy one the solarium was full very early, on the sunny one the loungers by the main pool had all gone by about 10am 

1 hour ago, hampshirelad said: Anyone got feedback on MSC Yacht Club. I can plug my ears to  block out hearing the same thing in 20 different languages

We were on there a couple of weeks ago to try it out, very happy, have another cruise booked for February also in Yacht Club.

Better than the Retreat for around Aqua prices.

The entertainment on Celebrity is better than MSC, but the production shows don't change so it doesn't matter how good they are, once you've seen them a couple of times.

30 minutes ago, debsjc said: They did have a cook to order pasta station in the OVC which was good. I don't think there was a stir fry station though.

The stir fry station is usually on the back/aft side of the buffet, kitty-corner from the pasta bar. It was available at dinner on our recent Eclipse cruise, though understaffed and understocked, making for long wait times.

curmudgeon98

1 hour ago, hampshirelad said:   How have others got on with Oceania - the blub seems to over promise. Are drinks and excursions mega priced to make up for cabin headline prices. I believe most Oceania mainly run  the old "R" ships with small cabins. Azamara has some of these ships and the bulk of the cabins are politely described as cramped. Smaller than a standard Celebrity cabin.

Oceania has four "R" ships, two larger (1250 passenger) ships, and one new ship coming soon.  The 1250 passenger (Marina and Riviera) are a major step up in space (both cabin and public) from the "R" ships.  Our experience (pre-covid) was that food was definitely better than the big-ship lines, though we personally weren't wowed by the specialty restaurants.  Drinks definitely felt over-priced.  Oceania seems to be changing to a "more inclusive" pricing model next month, which will presumably boost cabin prices; we'll see how that falls out.

Totally agree re crowded venues in the evening, difficulty in finding seats and being served. On the 29th May Silhouette cruise, the MDR was a shambles with so much queueing.

We have 1 more Celebrity cruise booked, but my money is for the suites on Cunard. Fabulous location dining rooms on the 2 smaller ships, with own table for whole cruise no matter what time you turn up! The ships are certainly have more public space.

That was similar to our experience on NCL in Dec but did not encounter that on the Equinox in Nov or the Beyond in April.

Sorry things didn't go so great.

I don’t know why people complain about the bottled water.  I drank that and Evian and didn’t notice much difference.

Waiting for the bar is unfortunate.  On the Beyond we got lucky to get a table at the Martini bar but it wasn’t too late.

At the pool I would just wait in line.  Too many people there I suppose.

12 hours ago, CruiserByHeart said: Thanks  @debsjc , for your candid review 🙏   We're going on the Silhouette for the westbound transatlantic and wondering how service will be. While it's still early in the season, your report does give us a glimpse of what we might expect. We've cruised on Celebrity Cruises many times and hope you enjoyed your experience enough to give them a another chance 😉

We were on the eastbound TA this spring. The service was excellent but the ship was only 53% full. We’ve found that’s usually the case on TAs. 

2 hours ago, mrgabriel said: the ship was only 53% full

I believe you 😃 So was our previous TA on the Celebrity Eclipse back in 2017. Just checked our upcoming cruise and all that's left to book are inside rooms 😱

8 hours ago, LadyL1 said: Totally agree re crowded venues in the evening, difficulty in finding seats and being served. On the 29th May Silhouette cruise, the MDR was a shambles with so much queueing. We have 1 more Celebrity cruise booked, but my money is for the suites on Cunard. Fabulous location dining rooms on the 2 smaller ships, with own table for whole cruise no matter what time you turn up! The ships are certainly have more public space.

We were also on that sailing. I concur. The ship was overcrowded imo. Hadn’t realised when I booked that it was half term. Also first time not in retreat so I expect that made a difference to our experience but Blu was excellent.   

Not wanting to dress up so I like X style but will look at yacht club, & possibly Cunard. 

the penguins

2 hours ago, mrgabriel said: We were on the eastbound TA this spring. The service was excellent but the ship was only 53% full. We’ve found that’s usually the case on TAs. 

Pre pandemic all the TA's we have done have been full. Our TS on Reflection in October also seems close to capacity. Bonus on TA's very few (almost zero) kids.

15 hours ago, debsjc said: We just returned back from the Silhouette on Saturday, on a 7 days Spain & Portugal cruise from Southampton. This was our first trip with Celebrity, and before this our current 'favourite' line was Princess (or Oceania when we want to splash out!)  Our cabin was a concierge class balcony, aft on deck 11.   I am going to give some hopefully constructive criticism, but I would like to say we didn't let any of the issues spoil our vacation, and we still had a good time made the most of the cruise.    Good Points   1- The appearance of the ship throughout was stunning, stylish decor and spotlessly clean   2- We were very happy with our balcony stateroom, and our stateroom attendant was great. The isn't a lot we ask for, but we were very happy to have ice refreshed twice a day.    3- Oceanview cafe - We ate here for every breakfast and lunch, and 5 x dinners. The food is excellent, mostly a good choice, and the hot items are actually kept hot which we appreciated. Enjoyed the themed evenings, such as Italian and Spanish... but would just have a liked a little more choice for evening meal, maybe a made to order stir fry station. Having the ice cream station was great.    4- Embarkation and Disembarkation were very smooth and well organised.   5- The majority of the crew were very friendly.    6- Entertainment - Great production shows, and a lot of good singers and musicians playing around the ship.    Disappointing    1 - The bar service was awful in some areas. Trying to get a drink by the pool was the worst, we sat by the pool for 3 hours without seeing 1 waiter, and there was only 1 barman on duty at the pool bar with long lines. In the evening, if you could get a table in a bar the service was fine, but going up to a bar usually involved a long wait again. It seemed like with so many people on packages, they did not have the crew to cope with the demand. We are not big drinkers, about 3 drinks a day, but it was such a battle it became annoying. I did try and address this on board, as I was contacted after I wrote on the comments form, however nothing actually changed.   2- Evening seating in the bars - there is just no where near enough seats, several times we walked from bar to bar just trying to find a table with no luck at all. Every bar had people standing around looking for seats. There was space for a lot more tables, not sure why this wasn't been utilised, if we could see there was a problem the crew should be able to. We spoke to several people who were going back to their cabins as they gave up trying to find a spot.    3- Dining room - Long lines to get in, even if you had a reservation on anytime dining. Once inside the service was slow, with no checkbacks from the wait staff. The first night the food was cold, which did improve the second night. But due to slow service we gave up and ate in the cafe. If you don't mind spending 2 hours over a mediocre meal then you will be fine.    4- Classic drinks package - If you say the package includes 'bottled water' then it needs to do that. A brand of still mineral water, and a brand of sparkling mineral water (any brand) Filtered metallic tasting water is not acceptable.    5- WiFi - Basic package just about works on a phone to load emails, but if you want to use a laptop it's terrible.   I'm sure I have probably upset some Celebrity regulars, but I can only report it as we found it. This sailing was full, and the facilities seemed stretched.  For me Celebrity is at a medium-high price point, and this should be reflected in the service. I felt the crew spent a lot of time on board telling everyone how amazing Celebrity are, but weren't actually prepared to make any changes to achieve that level  

No problem with honest reviews just a couple of "factual" points:

Internet: your basic internet did exactly what was described I.e. basic. Our one experience of Princess's was it worked better and faster but shut down almost totally of 3 days Transatlsntic and that has never happened on X

Water: the canned water was introduced as part of X's commitment to stop using "one time plastic". It is still Spring Water not just filtered and the cans are clearly labelled. 

Any Time Dining: your experience was disappointing and, provided we have pre-booked, is something we have never experienced on Silhouette. 2 hours is the time alloted for a meal we book for 6.30 and aim to leave by 8.15 always at a sharing table 

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You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

By The Way Concierge digs into the (surprisingly) complicated rules for travel by sea.

Traveling has always come with complications. Our By The Way Concierge column will take your travel dilemmas to the experts to help you navigate the unexpected. Want to see your question answered? Submit it here .

We’re going on a very short cruise from California to Mexico this spring. Do we need passports for our kids, even if we don’t get off the ship? — Ben, Springfield, Va.

There’s a difference between what you need and what is a good idea to have.

Let’s begin with the first: On most cruise lines and for most itineraries, a voyage that starts and ends at the same U.S. port and stays in the Western Hemisphere will not require any American citizen — child or adult — to have a passport.

These are called closed-loop cruises, and they only need proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate plus a government-issued photo ID, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection . For people under 16, a birth certificate will suffice. Popular cruise lines including Carnival , Royal Caribbean and Norwegian detail their requirements and any exceptions online.

A sailing that leaves from one U.S. port and ends at another — or starts in the United States and ends at a foreign destination — would not be classified as a closed-loop cruise. Everyone, including kids, would need a passport in that case.

There are some caveats, warns Teresa Tennant, senior vice president of the travel planning company Cruise Specialists . Some cruise companies, including Holland America Line and Princess Cruises , say that all members of a party must have a passport if minors are traveling with only one adult.

Some other cruise lines, such as the luxury Regent Seven Seas Cruises, require a passport for all sailings.

“It’s important to always check with the cruise line, because they can set their own rules that are actually above and beyond,” Tennant said.

Customs and Border Protection also urges travelers to check with their cruise company, travel agent and destination to confirm what’s required to enter foreign countries on an itinerary.

Whether or not you are required to have a passport, cruise lines and experts say it’s smart to have one before setting sail. The task isn’t quite as onerous as it used to be, now that wait times have returned to pre-pandemic norms of six to eight weeks for routine service and two to three weeks for the expedited process.

Cruise lines say they strongly recommend that passengers opt for the passport over other forms of identification.

“A passport is the hassle-free, gold standard for traveling between countries,” Royal Caribbean says on its website. “Boarding and disembarking through customs with a passport is usually faster than other types of ID documents.”

The U.S. State Department says travelers might need their passport “in the event of an unexpected medical evacuation or if the ship docks at an alternate port.” Travelers would also need their passports if they showed up late in a foreign port and the ship left without them — which has happened to some U.S. passengers recently.

“You should bring your passport even if your cruise says you won’t need it,” the State Department says on its information page for cruise ship passengers.

Colleen McDaniel, editor in chief of the news and review site Cruise Critic , said in an email that it would be much more difficult to get home without a passport if someone had to leave the ship.

“In such a case, you might have to rely on help from a U.S. embassy or consulate to return, which can take time,” she said.

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By Katros , November 10, 2013 in Ask a Cruise Question

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best cruises to northern Europe to include moscow

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kcwingwalker

This board might be of some help http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

The board does not list Moscow but does list St. Petersburg and is for people cruising Northern Europe and the Baltics.

puppycanducruise

I imagine your best bet would be a river cruise. Check out Avalon, Viking etc.

Thanks just starting my search :-)

We've done some cruises that called at St Petersburg that offered a day's excursion to Moscow. It left VERY early in the AM, you flew, it was pricy, and folks said it was tiring. A day in Moscow is not enough to see and appreciate the city, and unless you've been to St Petersburg several times, you miss all there is to see there. Most folks who've done it that i've talked to would not recommend the Moscow excursion if you're taking a ocean liner cruise calling at St Petersburg, but you're on a river cruise whereby you get to spend 3 or 4 days in Moscow......yes.

We took a river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It was a six day cruise plus four days on either end. Still did not have enough time.

I would look at a river cruise as well.

You mention northern Europe so I assume you are interested in a sea cruise which would be on the Baltic Sea. Moscow is far inland, no sea cruises. As mentioned, excursions to Moscow are offered on the 2 day stops in St. Petersburg, but I wouldn't recommend it. I would suggest that a tour of Moscow would require a land visit or a river cruise. Both will require a visa which is waived for licensed tour group in St. Petersburg.

We just returned from a Vantage river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We spent 3 day in a hotel in Moscow before getting on the ship. The story and pictures are on our website.

We are always happy to answer any questions.

Thanks everyone for your help. Thanks also to Steve and Kathy ! soo much information very helpful :)

Tiggertastic

river cruises or most of the cruises that go to st petersburg for 2 nights do an excursion upto moscow - they fly you up there and stay overnight and fly back

celebrity and NCL both did it when we did the baltics with them

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Guest Essay

Saying Goodbye to My Brilliant Friend, the Poetry Critic Helen Vendler

By Roger Rosenblatt

The author, most recently, of “Cataract Blues: Running the Keyboard.”

One makes so few new friends in older age — I mean, real friends, the ones you bond with and hold dear, as if you’d known one another since childhood.

Old age often prevents, or at least tempers, such discoveries. The joy of suddenly finding someone of compatible tastes, politics, intellectual interests and sense of humor can be shadowed, if tacitly, by the inevitable prospect of loss.

I became friends with Helen Vendler — the legendary poetry critic who died last week — six years ago, after she came to a talk I gave at Harvard about my 1965-66 Fulbright year in Ireland. Our friendship was close at the outset and was fortified and deepened by many letters between us, by our writing.

Some critics gain notice by something new they discover in the literature they examine. Helen became the most important critic of the age by dealing with something old and basic — the fact that great poetry was, well, lovable. Her vast knowledge of it was not like anyone else’s, and she embraced the poets she admired with informed exuberance.

The evening we met, Helen and I huddled together for an hour, maybe two, speaking of the great Celtic scholar John Kelleher, under whom we had both studied; of Irish poetry; and of our families. Helen was born to cruelly restrictive Irish Catholic parents who would not think of her going to anything but a Catholic college. When Helen rebelled against them, she was effectively tossed out and never allowed to return home.

She told me all this at our very first meeting. And I told her the sorrows of my own life — the untimely death of my daughter, Amy, and the seven-plus years my wife, Ginny, and I spent helping to rear her three children. And I told Helen unhappy things about my own upbringing. The loneliness. I think we both sensed that we had found someone we could trust with our lives.

I never asked Helen why she had come to my talk in the first place, though I had recognized her immediately. After spending a life with English and American poetry — especially the poetry of Wallace Stevens — how could I not? The alert tilt of her head, the two parenthetical lines around the mouth that always seemed on the verge of saying something meaningful and the sad-kind-wise eyes of the most significant literary figure since Edmund Wilson.

And unlike Wilson, Helen was never compelled to show off. She knew as much about American writing as Wilson, and, I believe, loved it more.

It was that, even more than the breadth and depth of her learning, that set her apart. She was a poet who didn’t write poetry, but felt it like a poet, and thus knew the art form to the core of her being. Her method of “close reading,” studying a poem intently word by word, was her way of writing it in reverse.

Weeks before Helen’s death and what would have been her 91st birthday, we exchanged letters. I had sent her an essay I’d just written on the beauty of wonder, stemming from the wonder so many people felt upon viewing the total solar eclipse earlier this month. I often sent Helen things I wrote. Some she liked less than others, and she was never shy to say so. She liked the essay on wonder, though she said she was never a wonderer herself, but a “hopeless pragmatist,” not subject to miracles, except upon two occasions. One was the birth of her son, David, whom she mentioned in letters often. She loved David deeply, and both were happy when she moved from epic Cambridge to lyrical Laguna Niguel, Calif., to be near him, as she grew infirm.

Her second miracle, coincidentally, occurred when Seamus Heaney drove her to see a solar eclipse at Tintern Abbey. There, among the Welsh ruins, Helen had an astonishing experience, one that she described to me in a way that seemed almost to evoke Wordsworth:

I had of course read descriptions of the phenomena of a total eclipse, but no words could equal the total-body/total landscape effect; the ceasing of bird song; the inexorability of the dimming to a crescent and then to a corona; the total silence; the gradual salience of the stars; the iciness of the silhouette of the towers; the looming terror of the steely eclipse of all of nature. Now that quelled utterly any purely “scientific” interest. One became pure animal, only animal, no “thought-process” being even conceivable.

One who claims not to know wonders shows herself to be one.

She was so intent on the beauty of the poets she understood so deeply, she never could see why others found her appreciations remarkable. Once, when I sent her a note complimenting her on a wonderfully original observation she’d made in a recent article, she wrote: “So kind of you to encourage me. I always feel that everything I say would be obvious to anyone who can read, so am always amazed when someone praises something.”

Only an innocent of the highest order would say such a beautiful, preposterous thing. When recently the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded her the Gold Medal for Belle Lettres and Criticism, Helen was shocked.

“You could have floored me when I got the call,” she wrote to me, adding: “Perhaps I was chosen by the committee because of my advanced age; if so, I can’t complain. The quote that came to mind was Lowell’s ‘My head grizzled with the years’ gold garbage.’”

She was always doing that — attaching a quotation from poetry to a thought or experience of her own, as if she occupied the same room as all the great poets, living with them as closely as loved ones in a tenement.

Shelley called poets the “unacknowledged legislators of the world.” I never fully got that famous line. But if the legislators’ laws apply to feeling and conduct, I think he was onto something. If one reads poetry — ancient and modern — as deeply as Helen did, and stays with it, and lets it roll around in one’s head, the effect is transporting. You find yourself in a better realm of feeling and language. And nothing of the noisier outer world — not Donald Trump, not Taylor Swift — can get to you.

In our last exchange of letters, Helen told me about the death she was arranging for herself. I was brokenhearted to realize that I was losing someone who had given me and countless others so much thought and joy. Her last words to me were telling, though, and settled the matter as only practical, spiritual Helen could:

I feel not a whit sad at the fact of death, but massively sad at leaving friends behind, among whom you count dearly. I have always known what my true feelings are by whatever line of poetry rises unbidden to my mind on any occasion; to my genuine happiness, this time was a line from Herbert’s “Evensong,” in which God (always in Herbert, more like Jesus than Jehovah), says to the poet, “Henceforth repose; your work is done.”

She closed her letter as I closed my response. “Love and farewell.”

Roger Rosenblatt is the author, most recently, of “Cataract Blues: Running the Keyboard.”

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