Arrived at rural holiday cottage and the fridge is off

[Forflipsaake]

Ffffssssss! Arrived at holiday cottage in the middle of nowhere and found the fridge/freezer (ice box but decent size) turned off. We had shopped on the way so have all sorts of fresh stuff with us and some frozen ice cream. Do have a few ice blocks. Any practical suggestions?

Turn it on?

Turn it on and put your stuff in the fridge. It won’t go off in the few hours it’ll take to cool down.

And eat the ice cream. Any excuse.

Switch it on fridge stuff will be fine. How much do you have for freezer? If just the ice cream then yes probably best to eat it.
I'd complain though I think

Turn it on? The food won’t go off in a couple of hours and it will cool down asap.

Turn it on and pop your stuff in, not sure the ice cream will survive so good reason to eat it and buy more in my opinion.

as previously said, I would definitely complain about it

I turned it on as soon as I saw it, but Google is telling me up to 24 hours to cool and we have a lot of meat, fish and dairy. We've eaten an ice cream each but had bought 6 packs because we have other family joining later so that's £20 of ice cream sadly melting. I don't think there's anything else than can be done, but it's such a pain in the arse.

Run a cold sink, fill it with the ice and water and put the main stuff you need to chill, in there

Put the ice cream that you can’t eat in there.

Put the cold stuff in. Keep anything you’ll use tonight out. Keep the door shut til the morning. It’ll be normal temp by then.

We have a holiday house and usually turn fridge on when we arrive. It’s a 20 year old fridge and it cools down quickly. I think you’re over reacting.

24 hours? More like an hour especially if the fridge is full.

Modern fridges much quicker

I'd complain to the holiday company. Absolutely not acceptable as obviously people will bringing their food with them for their stay!

Put the stuff in, crank the dial up and keep the door shut for as long as possible.

This is a massive overreaction. Switch it on, put the stuff in. It will be fine.

Apparently we are in the minority. I didn't think my standards were particularly high.

I'd both be complaining to the holiday company and anticipating the majority of my stuff would be fine. I don't think they're mutually exclusive!

Was all your frozen stuff ruined?
I'd expect a reimbursement for spoiled food and something extra for the trouble.

I'd say it's not that uncommon if there haven't been people in the week before. We always put the fridge on and haven't get got food poisoning/ice cream melted.
There may be a superfreeze button that gets it down quicker, but it won't be anything like 24 hours until its cold enough.

It wont be a problem, by all means mention it and say it should be on so that its ready to receive food but your food will be fine

I like all the people confidently saying everything will be fine. In my experience freezers definitely take multiple hours to get to temperature

Have you called your host? They may live nearby or have another rental nearby you could put your food into whilst the fridge/freezer comes to temp