Swirl Wine Bar

The Logbook — Real Guest Soundings

Depth Sounding: This is a composite account from multiple guest experiences, edited to our venue standards for clarity. Individual sailings vary by ship, itinerary, and crew.

Swirls Wine Bar Review: Self-Pour with a Learning Curve

Introduction. Swirls Wine Bar is a self-service wine dispensing venue found on select Norwegian ships. Guests use a prepaid card (or drink package) to pour their own wine from automated dispensers — choose from tasting pours, half glasses, and full glasses across reds, whites, roses, and sometimes sparkling. It's a wine-tasting experience at sea.

Drinks & Service

The self-pour system features 20-40 wines depending on the ship — organized by category (whites, reds, rosés, sparkling) in temperature-controlled dispensers. Three pour sizes: tasting (1 oz), half glass (3 oz), and full glass (6 oz). The tasting pour is the best feature — sample broadly before committing. Quality ranges from forgettable supermarket wines in the standard tier to genuinely interesting bottles in the premium tier. The Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon in the mid-tier usually offer the best value. Premium pours (Barolo, Napa Cab) cost $3-5 per taste. Drink package holders can pour endlessly from the included tier. Non-wine options: none. This is wine only.

Service

The "service" is largely self-directed — you browse, you pour, you drink. An attendant is usually present to explain the system and refill machines, but they're not sommeliers. The initial setup (loading the card, understanding the pricing tiers) takes a few minutes. Once you're comfortable, the system is efficient and fun. Drink package holders benefit significantly — the per-pour pricing can add up quickly for cash customers.

Atmosphere

Modern and sleek — wine-themed décor with backlit bottles, tasting notes on digital displays, and a clean, contemporary design. The dispensers line the walls like a wine library. High-top tables and bar-height seating encourage standing and sampling. The space is small but rarely crowded — wine tasting attracts a self-selecting crowd. The atmosphere is more wine shop than bar: quiet, browsing-oriented, with guests studying labels and comparing notes. It's one of the more intellectually engaging bars on the ship, even if it lacks the warmth of a traditional wine bar with a sommelier. Machine malfunctions (empty bottles, card reader errors) occasionally interrupt the flow.

Conclusion

Rating: 3.5/5. Swirls Wine Bar offers a unique wine-tasting experience — the self-pour format and broad selection are fun for wine enthusiasts. It loses points for machine malfunctions, the confusing setup process, mediocre lower-tier wines, and the lack of sommelier guidance. Tip: Start with tasting pours of the premium wines — you'll spend the same as a full glass of cheap wine but discover something worth drinking. If you're on the drink package, this is excellent value — sample everything.

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