THE relatives of a missing cruise ship worker have made a heartfelt appeal for her safe return.

Rebecca Coriam has been missing at sea for more than two weeks after she failed to report for work on board the Disney Wonder cruise liner.

Her cousin Karla Lovell, of Flint, said she feels sure Rebecca, from Guilden Sutton, Chester, is alive and is asking anyone from Flintshire who might know anything to come forward.

“You don’t know who else was on the cruise,” she said. “There might be someone from this area who knows something.”

Karla, 23, said she was close to Rebecca, 24, and used to play with her when they were younger.

She said: “I used to see Rebecca often as I loaned a horse from her mum so, before she went away, I would always see her when I went round to their house.

“I got on really well with her. She’s lovely, such a nice girl.”

Rebecca, or Bex as she is fondly known by her friends and family, was reported missing on Tuesday, March 22, after she failed to turn up for her on-board shift.

The ship, which holds 2,700 passengers and 950 crew, left the port of Los Angeles on a seven-day trip to Mexico two days before Rebecca’s disappearance and was out at sea when the alarm was raised by co-workers.

Karla, a former pupil of St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School in Flint, heard her cousin was missing when her mum Trish Davies, from Caerwys, called her.

“It was so out of the blue,” said Karla. “She loved her job on the ship, she loved working with children.”

Disney Cruise Line bosses and the Royal Bahamas Police Force have conducted multiple shipboard and coastal searches in a bid to find the youth activities co-ordinator but her family and friends feel more could be done in the search.

“We want to get all the coastline searched. We’re sure she’s still alive,” said mum-of-one Karla.

Her uncle John Jennings, who organised a candlelight vigil at Chester Racecourse on Sunday for Rebecca, said he had heard some passengers on the cruise didn’t even know she was missing.

He said: “They’ve let passengers go off the ship and go home and not questioned them. It just doesn’t seem right.

“We feel the search ended about four days ago but feel they still need to search the coastline as she was a very strong swimmer.

“Someone must know something. We want to appeal to anyone in Flintshire who has any information.”

He added that St Werburgh’s Church in Chester had been in contact with churches along the coast where the ship had been sailing to ask if parishioners could join the search.

A spokesman from her employer, Disney Cruiseliners, said: “Over the past week-and-a-half we have done everything possible to get to the bottom of this situation. We continue to assist the Royal Bahamas Police Force with their investigation and we are awaiting their final report.

“We understand this is a very difficult time for the family and our thoughts are with them.”