I just received a response from Parallels:
Thank you for contacting Parallels Technical Support.
I understand that when you try to shutdown Mac it is taking long time and after uninstalling Parallels Desktop it takes only few seconds to shutdown.
Please provide us with the following information in order for us to understand the issue better:
1. May I know from when you are facing this issue?
Have you performed any upgrades or updates?
2. Please let me know how much Memory and CPU have you assigned to Virtual Machine?
To check this please launch Parallels Desktop click on Virtual Machine tab on the top Mac bar => Configure => General tab and check the memory and the CPU.
If it is above the recommended range then please assign it to the recommended range and check with the issue.
Why we are suggesting this because assign more than the recommended range to the Virtual Machine might slow down the performance of the Mac because Mac is the Host, Parallels and Windows are installed on Mac so Mac requires more memory.
3. Please launch Parallels Desktop => click on Help tab on the top Mac bar => Report a problem => Send report => provide me the problem report ID.
In the meantime please uninstall and reinstall Parallels Desktop and check with the issue.
Please click on the below mentioned link to download Parallels Desktop 7:-
http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/download/dr/
Once it is downloaded please open the DMG file and click on Uninstall and restart the Mac.
Now please open the same DMG file and click on Install.
Now please check with the issue and let us know the status of the issue.
Awaiting your reply.
I know I had the latest and greatest version of Parallels before deleting the files. But I wanted to give a shot and uninstalled and reinstalled Parallels. Works ok now. Without Parallels MBP took one second to 'Shut Down'. Now it takes three seconds. That is ok.
Anybody else tried uninstalling and reinstalling Parallels ?