Two problems made the situation worse:
1) The captain abandoning the ship meant that there was no actual leadership for evacuating the ship and the staff that remained didn't know what to do in the situation.
2) Apparently most of the ship's crew was "hotel staff" meaning that they were cooks, waiters, entertainers and other such workers and the actual sailors were a minority. (Although... You would think that some sort of emergency evacuation training would be required for the staff of a ship, even hotel staff has to know how to clear the building.)