Port holes vs picture window

I've written a few posts in the past about the benefits of a balcony cabin. I even wrote a post recently about an inside cabin, (see here), but the humble outside cabin quite often gets overlooked by both cruisers and cruise lines alike.For the right kind of person though an outside cabin can be the perfect compromise.

First off lets answer  a silly sounding question. What is an outside cabin?
An outside cabin is a cabin where one of the walls will be on the hull of the cruise ship you're sailing on. This means, rather than the four walls and a door that you get with an inside cabin, you'll have a window letting in natural daylight.
You still get some of the pros that you have with an inside cabin, namely a cheaper price that you'd pay for a balcony cabin, but you also avoid some of the cons.
an outside cabin will never feel as claustrophobic; you'd be amazed how much that natural daylight helps! It also gives you a bit of view to enjoy from your cabin when you're sailing.

Outside cabins come in two main varieties. Picture window and port hole cabins. The title gives most of it away but just quickly a porthole window will be smaller than a picture window and will obviously be 'porthole' shaped. Some cabins will only have one port hole, others may have two, side by side.

From there you move up to the picture window which, as it sounds, is a larger square window allowing in much more daylight and gives a better view.

The outside cabin is a great cabin choice for anyone who would like a balcony but can't quite afford it or for anyone that wants something a little better than an inside cabin.

Now onto the reason for this post. Myself, (and all the cruise lines), have always classed picture windows as much better than a port hole cabin due to the size of the window and the amount of sunlight they let in. However in a recent conversation with my wife we were discussing the possibility of booking an outside cabin for our next cruise when she said fine, as long as it's got port holes. My response was something along the lines of "Ehh??????"
It turns out she'd much rather stop in a port hole cabin, (and save the extra money), as she felt it was more nautical and much more in keeping with the idea of a cruise.

So what do you think? Would you save yourself the money and book a porthole cabin for that authentic ship 'feel' or would you opt for the much bigger picture window?

Happy cruising