I currently have Vello Freewave Fusion Pro system: A transmitter and 2 receivers for Nikon
On the plus side: Everything works . . . at least most of the time.
On the down side: The switches are a pain to set the correct channel and group. The system has no capacity for high speed sync, which I probably do not need but would be nice to have. It was hard to tell what position(s) the switches are finally placed in. I am told Vello products are model specific - - - so the Vello Freewave Fusion Pro will not work with the Vello Basic or any other model.

I would like to get a 3rd receiver. It is currently unavailable everywhere I have looked and when in stock will cost $70 from B&H.

I have looked at a Godox system which will do high speed sync, have 3 receivers and a transmitter for around $250. There is a small illuminated screen which seems to make settings easier to establish.

Vello makes a "Captain" system which would run around $300 and have the same components and features as the Godox system above but seemingly has the same crappy switches. The Captain System advertises as working with the receivers I already have - - - although that would provide overkill - - - more receivers than flashes.

Then, there are a myriad of third party systems that claim to work with Nikon but do not seem to offer high speed sync. Pocket wizard is a luxury I would rather not get involved with. This is a hobby, not a business for me.

Any and all advice would be appreciated - - - especially regarding reliability and durability.

Everyone will have an opinion from their experiences so here is mine. I have done numerous cruises. My wife and I love them. During the first couple, I took my Nikon D7000 and several lenses, including a wide to medium/long zoom, a prime, etc, and carried them everywhere. That was a mistake. During excursions at port destinations, you have to disembark the ship and climb aboard a bus or other transportation. These buses have limited space and seating and it is not always easy to get all your kit on and off easily. At stops for sightseeing, we have never really felt rushed but the time is limited. If you spend a lot of time setting up a tripod and taking one or two shots, you will miss much of what you came to see. The bus will have numerous stops to make before getting back to the ship at the required time. In short, if you want to see and experience all you have paid for, you cannot stop and spend a lot of time doing photography.

Besides, the opportunities to get really well composed, quality shots of a memorable site will be limited mainly because it IS a tourist area and will most likely be crowded and many people are usually present. Remember, depending on the cruise line and where it goes, there is an excellent chance there will be other cruise ships disembarking people at the same time you are there. We have been in ports where there were 2-3 other cruise ships docked. Many of the popular excursion sites may have multiple busses dropping off people.

During these first few cruises, while I did get a few good shots, most of our memorable shots came from my wife's iPhone as she would shoot as she walked and viewed all the sights while I fiddled with the camera gear. This led me to purchase a Sony RX100 M3. I left all the other gear at home and have been very pleased with the results. There are numerous makers of these small capable cameras including Canon, Nikon, etc, and are reasonably priced. They allow the photographer full control of exposure along with various auto modes and include a wide to moderate telephoto zoom. It is the only camera I carry on my travels now. It fits in a pocket or small shoulder bag and can be deployed in seconds to get the shots I would have missed otherwise.

However, to address your original question if I did want to carry the D7200, I would probably only bring the Nikon 16-85. This lens should cover the majority of your needs onboard the ship and most excursion shots. You may be tempted at taking the longer telephoto lens but these are heavy and with the ship moving I think would be of limited use. Besides, changing the lens is not something you may want to do on the deck of a ship. The Tamron 16-300 may also be a consideration depending on its weight.

Going on a cruise end of February til mid March of '22. Considering that the photography is going to be of most everything ( people, places and things from near to far). Trying to pack light as possible, no tripod, what lenses should I consider taking (Nikon D7200). Available lenses, Nikon 16-85, 70-200, 50-300, 50mm and Tamron 16-300. I'm going to try to stay off Auto. I recently retired, got into photography to stay busy not quite three years ago, so I have a lot to learn and could use advise to make this bucket list trip memorable. Thanks everyone in advance.

Thanks Albert, glad to hear that you liked my site - it has been a process evolving over a long time period. I found that the longer my list of albums became, the harder to read and keep an overview it became. That's why I upgraded the lists (basically excel spreadsheets) last spring, used light color shades as backgrounds to visually separate the various album blocks and hopefully make it easier to glance at the list and zoom in on what is desired. The "normal" way to display a cover picture for each album just becomes too voluminous in my opinion.

All of those NYC pictures were shot handheld - actually all 28,303 photos that you presently see in my albums were shot handheld - I didn't own a tripod for the last 30 years. Finally caved in and got one for Christmas 2 years ago, so that I could shoot the Northern Lights in Iceland during our "just-pre-Covid" trip in February 2020 - never saw a flimmer of it in the sky as there was always a complete cloud cover every night ..... so haven't used that tripod yet. Will give it a try again one of these years.

I am a very simple photographer - own one camera and one lens, besides not wanting to drag along a tripod, I also don't want to be bothered with carrying multi cameras and changing lenses. Way back in the past, when I was MUCH younger, I would travel with two cameras, one for print film and one for slides or b/w film, and even had a "movie camera" with me. Those days are long gone - I now prefer the simplicity of having one camera/lens combination that I know and that I can use at a moment's notice, without having to change lenses. I know, that is not the purist approach, and that you cannot get perfect results - but it seems to work well enough for me. The camera I am using since the beginning of 2014 is a full-frame Nikon D610 and the lens always fixed on it is a AF S Nikkor 24-120mm 1:4 G ED constant f4 lens. The photos you see in my albums prior to 2014 were shot with a crop sensor Nikon D90 and an 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens, again the only lens I owned at that time. Luckily even in my old age, I still have a quite steady hand and have little problem shooting night pictures (like those in NYC) handheld, and I try not to revv up the ISO.

Thank you for your good wishes for our upcoming trip to my native Switzerland. BTW, where are you located, if you don't mind me asking?

PS - I am contemplating upgrading my camera next year, it slowly is time to do so, not sure yet which direction I will go.