I admit it’s somewhat odd that Shawn’s coverage of the Merlin parks has decreased substantially all of a sudden, especially considering he was so enthusiastic about things like Oktoberfest earlier in 2020, but has barely mentioned them (if he’s mentioned them at all?) in more recent times. I also find it odd that he has only had one visit (or at least, he’s only filmed 1 vlog) to any of Merlin’s properties post-reopening, as he would usually film multiple over the summer, and be at the first day of the events.
However, I don’t think this automatically means that Shawn has had some kind of private fracas with Merlin by any means. There could be all sorts of reasons for the recent lack of coverage of Merlin parks; he could just be having issues booking a pass holder reservation for the company’s parks, or he could just be wanting to give his attention to the smaller parks (this is something he often liked to emphasise and do pre-2020, so this wouldn’t surprise me). He could also be considering the events from a COVID-19 standpoint; he might not want to go to busy events, or he might feel he shouldn’t due to the amount he’s travelling.
I’m not ruling anything out, but I don’t think it’s necessarily wise to jump to rash conclusions either. There are likely other circumstances in play here; even though he doesn’t always agree with their decisions, Shawn has always expressed a great degree of respect for Towers/Merlin in his videos, so I highly doubt that he would be consciously boycotting them all of a sudden.
EDIT: I just had a trawl through the TPW Facebook page, and his official reasoning was that he’s “trying to prioritise visiting as many different parks as possible”, so it would seem he wants to give his attention to the smaller parks.
