I have my doubts that this was due to freak waves. Just a spot of heavy weather and an incident which it is in the interests of the cruise company and navigators to put down to an Act of God rather than bad ship design and possibly excessive speed in the conditions.
Looking at the photos of Louis Majesty, it is hard to believe that the designers were allowed to get away with putting full height plate glass windows at deck level right up in the bow. It was an accident waiting to happen and I am surprised it had not happened before. The dead passengers were killed by shards of toughened glass from the shattered windows as they exploded inwards under the force of water.
Any ship will take green water over the bow in a storm. The weight of water and the force behind it is tremendous. On most ships, there is a raised forecastle and the water pours over it and down onto the main deck and away, with the accommodation superstructure a lot further aft.
On passenger ships such as this, the superstructure extends right up into the bows of the ship but it is axiomatic that the lower levels of the Bridge front are solid steel plate to withstand the force of water when the vessel ships a greenie. This one looks like someone has stuck a glass conservatory on the front of a speedboat and expected it to survive. Might be alright for playing about in a river but absurd for a seagoing vessel. Quite extraordinary that the classification society and the surveyors have permitted it.