It'd probably be easier to squeeze your boy's knee than hold their hand, but you won't really have any time to think about anyone - it's a fast ride!
On the plus side, though, you CAN see your son, if you put your head right back against the seat and look to the side. There's actually a small opening between the seats that I didn't notice the first four times I rode. After that, we all talked to each other through the openings, instead of leaning forward to peer around the restraints.
Here's what it felt like to me - you sit down in a nice, comfy, secure little pod. You get lifted up and then suddenly you're being tilted in every direction EXCEPT upside down. There's no inversion (which made me happy!). It's smooth, not jarring, but the changes in angle are quite swift. You lean forward and backward (almost onto your back), and you WILL want to hang onto the restraints (it's set up so that there's a basically a hand grip in front of you).
While all this is going on, you're moving from virtual environments into "stage sets" and back again. The transitions are astonishingly smooth.
Word of advice... Unless you're a Pooh-sized person, don't sit in an end seat - those are sometimes extra-large for riders with "unusual body dimensions" and whenever my skinny butt landed in them, I found myself with a lot of air under my seat. Every time the ride changed direction, I'd come right up and then back down with a thump, and sometimes I'd slide from one side of the seat to the other. I know there was no chance of me falling out, but it didn't feel very secure.
So unless you feel you need the extra room, try to avoid those seats. We made my husband sit on the end after we figured this out, since he's the largest among us and actually appreciated the extra shoulder room. My kids then got to fight over who had the other end seat.
Guess we were thinking the same thing. 
