With little fanfare, some cruise ships have scrapped an icon as integral to the cruise experience as bingo, formal night and the lifeboat drill: the midnight buffet.

Sandwiched between the flames of dinner's baked Alaska and the drizzle of hollandaise on breakfast's eggs Benedict, the midnight buffet is a redundant repast that many cruisers nevertheless deem a right of passage. Chalk it up to heightened health consciousness or repeat customers for whom the novelty of overconsumption has worn off. But some cruise lines are cutting out the lavish late-night snack with its customary ice sculptures and vegetables carved into shapes nature never intended.

Princess Cruises has discontinued the midnight meal on seven ships that have 24-hour restaurants. The new Disney Cruise Line nixed the midnight buffet altogether, saying it would interfere with the evening's entertainment. Instead, waiters pass hors d'oeuvres in public areas. Celebrity Cruises has trimmed its late-night spread to five nights a week. Other lines now serve their grand theme buffets at lunch. And smaller, upscale cruise lines never bothered with them.

"The more people cruise, the less they are interested in the traditional midnight buffet," says Shirley Slater, author of the annual Fielding's Worldwide Cruises.

"They weren't well-attended, and they were wasting a lot of food," adds co-author Harry Basch.

Indeed, even cruisers who wouldn't miss bellying up to the late-night groaning board concede the midnight buffet isn't about sustenance. It's about indulgence. Sheree Troy, a veteran cruiser from Lake Wylie, S.C., acknowledges that ingesting steamed shrimp, fettuccine Alfredo, beet salad and lentil soup on an already full stomach -- and just before bed, no less! -- is potentially foolhardy. But that hasn't prevented her from going back for "just a wee bit of baklava."

Ida D'Errico, a Pittsburgh resident with 26 cruises under her belt, rarely skips the midnight buffet. It's food as entertainment, she says.

"Eating is part of the cruise experience. I may come home with 10 pounds, but it's part of the fun of being there."