You may be right regarding the number of people on board, but it won't work on tv like it does on an airplane. On a plane you can see the exits from where you are and you are going to have to leave via one of those doors. A ship is an entirely different beast; you need to know where your life boat is and what the horn sounds like, etc. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just think this one is non-negotiable as the cruise line doesn't even make the decision, the Coast Guard does.
Holland America actually has, on some of their ships, their muster procedures shown on the TV and then you report to one of the inside locations for the remainder of the drill. I, personally, think it is a better situation than to have possibly thousands of people running around on deck in a panic.
I saw once where someone said that the muster station to abandon ship is 10:1.
This explanation is by a gentleman who is a Chief Engineer with over 40 years experience with merchant and cruise ships.
"Passengers will be sent to muster locations regardless of the type of emergency, when the Captain determines that it is beneficial to get all the passengers to known locations (the muster stations), accounted for, and under the supervision of the crew, to keep them safe from the emergency. It frees those crew who are actually responding to the emergency from diverting assets to locating possible passengers in the emergency area.
This is the main purpose of the passenger muster, to have all the passengers accounted for, and in known locations, with crew to direct them, not to get into lifeboats. Only if the Captain subsequently feels that it is better for the passengers to leave the ship than remain onboard, would he make the decision to board the lifeboats. Groups are then, orderly, sent from the muster stations to the boat stations to board the boats. Indoor stations also clear the outside decks around the boats for the crew to prepare the boats, which they do always, regardless of whether the Captain ever feels the need to abandon ship."