there are a bunch of little upgrades. So little that if they had been Microsoft we would be calling this a free service pack. On the other hand, it's the little things that make life better I'm kinda exited about the new curve editing tools (straight and lock lenght), and being able to use the mouse wheel (not to dolly in 3D, I don't like that, but in the 2D windows it's exactly what I wanted).
I think the design of the previous box was way cooler, but that's just me.
And I'll probably skip this version too, because I'm still trying to buy me a workstation :p

Also, I'm a noobie, so I can't have much of an opinion in advanced stuff like hair and fur. But hey, it's still sounds pretty cool to me to have mental ray renderable fur, and to have a hair plugin, every body else does, why shouldn't maya?