Don't forget the fact that organizers claimed that all passengers are peaceful activists with no weapons. If you wonder how they menage to got so many metal rods. This is how:
They used electric saws to saw metal rods off of the ship's deck. You can see that at 1:46
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16sANhzjcC0
They also had gas masks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZlSSaPT_OU
Which means that they wanted to fight.